Retail Employment Shows Some Improvement

There’s good news and bad news regarding employment for a number of industries in the U.S., with retail, more or less, coming out on the positive end.

In examining data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday (April 1) related to employment in the country for the month of March, CNSNews highlights retail as an industry that saw gains (along with food services and drinking establishments), while manufacturing experienced a decline.

By comparison, notes the outlet, retail jobs in the U.S. outnumbered those in manufacturing (an industry in which 29,000 jobs were lost on the month) by 3,651,100 in March.

Adjusting its numbers for the respective season, the BLS report saw jobs in the U.S. retail sector rise by 47,700 between February and March, from 15,894,400 to 15,942,100.

The latest BLS data bears out a trend, notes CNSNews, in employment among the the two industries that shows retail climbing, while manufacturing falls, that goes back to 2002. December of that year marked the first time in which retail jobs in the U.S. overtook those in the manufacturing industry; the month prior, manufacturing led retail by 14,992,000 to 14,970,400. But, in December, retail jobs rose to 14,912,000, and manufacturing jobs slipped to 14,979,800.

Most recently, shares the outlet from the BLS report, U.S. retail jobs outnumber manufacturing jobs by 15,942,100 to 12,291,000 — a difference of 3,651,100 nationwide.