Retail Search Group

The numbers in retail always tell the story and July retail industry sales make a clear statement: retail is continuing its positive growth as we move into third quarter of 2010. The past months show that specialty hard lines, home, footwear and automotive are continuing as top performers. The flagship department store group continues to put up solid comparable store growth, with Macy’s dominating. For many of these retailers July marked the fourth straight month of comparable store growth over 2009. Even though last year’s results were disappointing you can clearly see the industry moving in the right direction.

The overall industry increase was again in the 3% range, showing consistent growth, but we have retailers on both sides of that number. Although several analysts reported results below their expectations we are pleased to see a consistently positive trend across most brands. Exceptions to this are few, such as the struggling Hot Topic, posting yet another month of declining comparable store sales with a 9% drop vs. 2009 results. Contrast this to Limited Brands posting a 12% increase vs. last year.

The description “slow and steady” best describes the overall recovery trend. A consolidated summary is below. The numbers tell the story.

Unemployment
Total employment in the United States fell by 131,000 positions in July as the unemployment rate remained at 9.5%, according to new figures released from the Labor Department. The most significant losses were seen in the government as 202,000 jobs were shed. The end of 143,000 temporary census jobs made up the bulk of losses, however, cash strapped state and local governments also trimmed 48,000 positions.

Total private sector employment increased for the seventh month in a row, adding 71,000 positions. The professional, management and related occupation unemployment rate in July was 5.0%, down from 5.5% a year ago.

Recruiting
Virtually every practice at Retail Search Group is managing dramatically increased demand over 2009. Our candidate placement activity on a year-over-year basis is up 40%.

Retail CEOs know what is ahead and they are committed to securing leadership teams of the best talent. Even currently-employed, high demand candidates are now willing to consider change when the right opportunity is presented. This is a significant market change from a few months ago.


Click here to view July Retail Sales Results