Grocery store employment holds steady in August

Grocery store retail job growth came in virtually flat for August after a July employment surge in the segment.

Food and beverage retailers added just 600 jobs in August (seasonally adjusted), well below a downward-revised 5,600 jobs gained in July, which followed an upward-revised 4,100 jobs lost in June, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Prior to the job swoon in June, grocery retail’s last employment decline came in March, when 6,600 jobs were lost.

The total job count for food and beverage stores basically plateaued in August, edging up 0.02% to nearly 3.247 million from about 3.246 million in July.

On an annual basis, the grocery retail segment added 36,700 jobs for August, up 1.1%, compared with a yearly gain of 50,000 jobs for July, a 1.6% uptick, BLS data showed. The August increase marked the 10th straight month of annual job growth for food and beverage stores since a slide in October.

Total retail trade employment also was flattish in August, rising by 6,300 jobs month over month ( 0.4%) versus a sequential increase of 13,200 jobs ( 0.9%) in updated figures for July. Year over year, the retail trade’s job count grew by 31,500, or 0.2%, to 15.554 million in August, down from a 0.4% gain in July.

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Warehouse clubs, supercenters and other general merchandise retailers again saw more hiring in August, with 4,700 jobs added in the segment ( 0.2%) from July, when employment expanded by 5,600 jobs ( 0.3%). Annually, hiring in the segment climbed by 49,100 jobs, or 2.3%.

The overall general-merchandise retail segment—including department stores—added only 5,000 jobs ( 0.2%) in August, following an upward-revised 1,000-job gain ( 0.03%) in July and a jump of 52,700 jobs ( 1.7%) from August 2022. Department store employment stabilized during August, as the segment added 300 jobs ( 0.03%) after losing 4,600 jobs (-0.5%) in July. Compared with a year ago, department stores lost 1,200 jobs (-0.1%) in August.

In the food, drug and mass retail channel, employment again sank for health and personal care stores, including drug stores. The segment shed 5,400 jobs (-0.5%) in August after losing 1,300 jobs (-0.1%) in July. Health and personal care stores have dropped 4,000 jobs (-0.4%) since August 2022.

The trend changed in August for the U.S. unemployment rate, which climbed to 3.8% from 3.5% in July and marked the highest level thus far in 2023. Still, the latest reading was nearly the same as the 3.7% rate in August 2022.

Nationally, the number of unemployed people rose by 514,000 month over month to about 6.36 million for August, compared with 6.02 million jobless people a year earlier. According to BLS, though, more jobs were added to the employment rolls in August than the downward-revised 157,000 jobs added in July.

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“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000 in August, and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%,” BLS stated in its August report just before the Labor Day weekend. “Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance and construction. Employment in transportation and warehousing declined.”

The nation added nearly 3.09 million jobs in August from a year ago, representing a 2% gain. That compared with 3.25 million jobs added ( 2.1%) year over year in July.

“In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $33.82. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.3%,” BLS reported. “In August, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $29.00.”