WASHINGTON — Specialty stores and discounters boosted payrolls in February, while department stores shed jobs and the overall monthly unemployment rate declined, the U.S. Department of Labor’s monthly employment report revealed Friday.
Apparel and accessories stores added 7,600 seasonally adjusted jobs to employ 1.37 million in February, while general merchandise stores, a category that includes discounters and department stores, added 800 jobs to employ 3.14 million. Department stores cut 2,900 jobs to employ 1.33 million.
Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody’s Analytics, said the hiring trend at apparel and accessories stores has been weak for the past five months, but he noted that the increase in February could signal a shift.
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“For apparel and accessories stores, I think there has been sales growth that has improved over the last several months,” Hoyt said. “Perhaps that is an encouraging sign that the job gains we saw in the month might repeat. A sales pickup gives employers both the need and wherewithal to do some hiring, but it is too early to say that definitively.”
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Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation, said, “Payrolls came in much stronger than expected, especially given the issues seen over the past several weeks with the West Coast port delays and severe winter weather in the Northeast and Midwest. As we approach spring, there’s good reason to believe that the optimism that we’ve seen thus far from businesses will continue, though wage growth remains a big question mark, potentially impacting how Americans will continue to spend their discretionary budgets.”
The average hourly earnings growth edged up 0.1 percent in February and was up 2 percent compared with a year earlier.
“There is still no sign in this report of a pickup in earnings growth, which is one of a couple of disappointing aspects in this report,” Hoyt of Moody’s said.
In the overall economy, employers added 295,000 jobs as the unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent in January.
“The outstanding job growth seen in recent months continued in February, with 295,000 created; however, two lingering issues with the quality of the labor market reappeared — the supply of labor and wage growth,” said Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.
Handler noted that although the unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent last month, the labor workforce participation rate fell. However, Handler said the employment report “reaffirms the soundness in the U.S. economy.”
In manufacturing, textile mills making apparel fabrics and yarns cut 300 jobs to employ 119,100, while employment at mills making home-furnishing products rose 200 to 114,800. Apparel manufacturing employment fell 1,300 to 137,000 last month.