Jan 11, 2011

Holiday retail sales and hiring up significantly from 2009 seasonBy Andrea ChangLATimes.com

ShopperTrak, the latest retail group to release holiday figures, said Monday that U.S. retail sales rose a solid 4% for the crucial November-December period. Foot traffic increased 1.8%.

Poor weather hurt shopping trends in December, but better-than-expected sales in November helped boost the season, ShopperTrak said.

“In December, retailers felt the wrath of Mother Nature as the crippling blizzard along the Eastern seaboard essentially wiped out shopping and delayed nearly $1 billion in sales on Dec. 26 and 27,” the group said.

Still, industry watchers are calling it the best holiday season since 2006.

Many retailers anticipated better Christmas sales and aggressively hired temporary workers to help out during the busiest time of the year.

Retail employment showed a net gain of 646,300 jobs in October, November and December, according to an analysis of employment data released Monday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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