Dive Brief:

• Core retail sales, excluding fuel and food, rose 0.7% nationwide in June according to the Commerce Department’s monthly retail sales report. Overall U.S. retail sales last month rose 2.7% from year-ago totals.

• Sales at retailers and restaurants rose 0.6% in June following a 0.2% gain in May. The results beat analyst expectations, with estimates ranging from 0.5% decrease to a 0.3 percent increase, according to Bloomberg.

• Demand for building materials and garden supplies greatly enabled the June boost. The 3.9% spike in building supplies followed a 2.5% plunge in May.

Dive Insight:

After signs of trouble for retail emerged early in the year, this third consecutive healthy monthly report from the Commerce Department bodes well for the second half of the year—not just for retailers, but for the economy as a whole, which depends mightily on consumer spending.

The surge in buildiing supply and garden sales was particularly massive, but June's gains were broad. E-commerce sales rose 1.1%, according to the government’s report, and department stores saw a 0.7% gain. But apparel store sales dropped 1%, and electronics and appliance store sales were flat.

Employment advances and wage gains are helping increase consumer confidence, experts say.

“This ends up capping a really great quarter for consumer spending,” Omair Sharif, senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale, told Bloomberg. “There’s a bit more confidence about job security, there’s a bit more confidence about where things are headed in terms of wages and the economy. All of that is combining to give us the rebound we’re seeing in retail sales.”