August Week 4
Week four in August saw the first drop in customer counts for the month. While it was a slight decrease of .08%, it was a drastic drop from the prior week. At the same time, the drop over prior year’s sales narrowed to 1%. With the unemployment numbers holding at 3.9% for August, second quarter productivity numbers were released showing a 2.9% increase.
While the unemployment number remained steady at 3.9%, there were 201,000 jobs added to the economy. This is a solid increase, considering the already low unemployment numbers, and a good sign that people are beginning to return to the workforce.
Despite wages just staying on par with inflation, competition for good employees is beginning to heat up.