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Retail sales hit record $4.7 trillion in 2011
Photo
Aramark service managers Randy Nelson, left, and Brittany Howard, center, talk to job-seekers Tuesday at the HireLive career fair in Los Angeles. More people sought unemployment benefits last week as companies let go of thousands of workers hired for the holiday season.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
America’s retailers enjoyed a record 2011 and their first $400 billion sales months ever. But the final month of the year was a dud.
Sales eked out a 0.1 percent increase in December, lifting sales to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion.
It was the second-straight month that sales topped $400 billion. The government revised November sales to show a 0.4 percent gain, twice the original estimate.
December’s increase, though, was the weakest in seven months. Excluding volatile auto purchases, overall sales actually fell 0.2 percent. It was the first such drop since May 2010.
But analysts said they still expect consumers to help the economy strengthen further, especially because businesses have stepped up hiring. More jobs mean more people with money to spend.
For all of 2011, sales totaled a record $4.7 trillion. That was a gain of nearly 8 percent over 2010 — the largest percentage increase since 1999.
Steady sales gains have fueled a 20 percent surge from the low during the Great Recession. Monthly sales are even 6 percent above their pre-recession high. The figures confirm evidence that the economy was strengthening as 2011 ended.
Separately, more people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Applications rose 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 399,000. But the gain largely was due to companies’ shedding workers after the holiday season.
Economists downplayed the increase. It followed three months of declines that had reduced the number of unemployment applications to their lowest level in three years.