WASHINGTON — Textile and apparel manufacturers and department stores cut jobs last month, although accessories retailers were hiring, as a mixed picture of employment emerged four days before the midterm elections.
The Labor Department on Friday said 4,700 jobs were trimmed by textile and apparel makers, and department stores slashed 7,900 jobs. Those losses were somewhat offset by apparel and accessories stores that added 6,000 positions.
Overall, employers added 92,000 jobs in October, compared with a revised gain of 148,000 in September and 188,000 in August. Economists use a standard of at least 150,000 new jobs a month to keep up with population growth. But the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 percent — its lowest point since the spring of 2001 — from 4.6 percent in September.
Job losses have been an issue in several competitive Congressional contests, stretching from the Southern textile states of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to industrial states such as Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Ohio.
Domestic textile and apparel manufacturing has gone through a period of consolidation for years, and many blame the job losses on low-priced imports.
Textile and apparel employment was down 45,500 from a year ago, and the industry now employs 595,300.
“The textile [employment] numbers were weak, and the industry will continue to lose jobs, unfortunately,” said Nigel Gault, U.S. economist at Global Insight. “That is simply how the effects of an increase in international competition is going to work…and naturally [voters] will blame the incumbents.”
Retail employment in October was down 62,800 from a year earlier, with department store layoffs accounting for well over half of the overall decline. Department stores, also caught in a long-term pattern of consolidation, trimmed payrolls to 1.55 million and lost 40,300 jobs against a year ago. Apparel and accessories stores increased payrolls to 1.44 million in October, a gain of 31,200 compared with a year ago.
“There are question marks over how strong consumer spending is going to be, which makes retailers cautious,” Gault said.
Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte Research, said, “It is very unusual to see a decline in employment in an industry that has had such strong top-line growth.” October same-store sales for department stores were relatively strong, with Nordstrom, Federated, J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue among the companies recording substantial gains, although specialty stores and discounters such as Wal-Mart were weaker.
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Steidtmann said overall retail employment has declined “slowly and steadily” since August 2005, with a loss of about 10,000 jobs a month.
“From a retail profitability perspective, this [decline in retail employment] should have a very favorable effect,” Steidtmann said.
Steidtmann attributed the decline to a “huge increase” in productivity and a shift in activity to “higher-productivity channels,” particularly the Internet.