Things are looking up this holiday season based on the National Retail Federations (NRF) forecasting models. Although global instability, weather and elections can have an impact on the economy, consumers are typically resilient and seem to be poised to spend more this year than in 2015.
According to a recent article, the NRF “expects sales in November and December, excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales, to increase a solid 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion — significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent and above the seven-year average of 3.4 percent since recovery began in 2009. Additionally, NRF is forecasting non-store sales to increase between 7 and 10 percent to as much as $117 billion.”
The article also points out that hiring for the season seems to be within the range of last year’s numbers. “According to NRF, retailers are expected to hire between 640,000 and 690,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, in line with last year’s 675,300 new holiday positions.”
