Research Brief: Retail Sales – November 2022

Hiring allows spending to elevate and broaden. Overall retail sales climbed by triple the pace of CPI inflation last month, up 1.3 percent. This indicates that spending improved in real terms. Expectation-exceeding October job creation that pushed the national headcount to 800,000 positions above the pre-pandemic mark partially offset the impacts of higher prices, steeper borrowing costs and other economic concerns. While consumers continued to place an emphasis on necessary items such as food and gas, more households purchased discretionary home improvement-related items last month, a reflection of the recent single-family housing market slowdown.

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