Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Department of Labor Friday reported that 252,000 jobs were added in December and that the unemployment rate edged down again to 5.6% from November’s 5.8%.
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The number of jobs added was the final tally of a pretty good employment year, with 2.95 million jobs added in 2014, the most since 1999. The number of retail jobs stayed about the same in December, following a large November gain of 55,700 retail jobs.
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But December also saw a drop in average hourly earnings, which dashed hopes brought on by November’s wage gain that American workers would finally see some meaningful financial relief.
Dive Insight:
“The rising tide of this economic wind at our back has to lift more boats,” Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez told the New York Times after Friday's report, when he also called the wage issue the “unfinished business” of the current economic recovery. That problem has hit home for retailers, which have experienced price pressures from consumers even at times when they seem more willing to spend, as they did during the past holiday season.
The situation has led to what Container Store CEO Kip Tindell this summer called a “retail funk” — something that he says could be remedied in part by retailers themselves with better wages and benefits for their workers.