Retail Adds Roughly 37,000 Jobs in February

Retail trade employment grew by 37,000 employees in February, reports Footwear News and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite ongoing labor shortages across the industry, there was a 6000-job gain in home and furniture stores, 12,000 in garden supply stores and building materials, and a 5000 gain at gas stations. Overall, the amount of added jobs beat February 2020 levels by 104,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate for February was 3.8 percent, down from 4 percent in January. A total of 4.2 million people said they were unable to work in February due to pandemic-related reasons or closed businesses, which was down from 6 million reporting similar reasons in January.

In recent months, many retailers are working to increase wages for hourly workers as well as grow healthcare benefit offerings.