Retail sales rose more than expected during May 2013, offering an encouraging sign about the health of the U.S. economy.
A Department of Commerce report showed that overall retail sales rose 0.6%, higher than the 0.4% economists had forecast and a significant improvement over April 2013, when retail sales increased just 0.1%. Sales of retail items totaled $421.1 billion in May, which represents a 4.3% year-over-year increase.
Auto industry sales showed the largest month-over-month gain of any retail sector, rising 1.8% in May. The auto industry saw an 8.5% increase in sales over May 2012, the Commerce Department reported.
The largest year-over-year gains, however, were the 11.3% increase for nonstore retailers and the 10.1% jump for dealers of building materials, and garden equipment and supplies.
The rising retail sales complement numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of Labor showing that 175,000 jobs were added during May, with a rise in employment in retail establishments helping fuel that growth. There were approximately 28,000 retail trade jobs added in May; the sector had added an average of 20,000 jobs each month during the previous year.
Overall, the nation’s jobless rate was 7.6% in May, unchanged over the previous month. Claims for unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 for the week ending June 8.
Bloomberg reported that the rise in retail sales indicates that consumers are driving the national economy toward recovery.
The news of a better-than-projected month for retail sales comes shortly after the Commerce Department issued revised numbers showing that the nation’s overall real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.4% during the first quarter of 2013. By comparison, the GDP – the output of goods and services produced in the United States – increased by 0.4% during the fourth quarter of 2012.
A primary driver of first-quarter GDP growth was personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which rose 3.4% in the first quarter of 2013, according to the Bureau of Economic Analyis. That was almost double the 1.8% increase reported in the last quarter of the previous year.
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