Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday morning said the U.S. unemployment rate in February remained unchanged at 4.9%, though average hourly wages fell 3%.

• Employment gains occurred in retail trade, healthcare and social assistance, food services and drinking places, and private educational services. Retailers added 55,000 jobs in February and have added 339,000 jobs in total in the past 12 months.

• The number of people employed part time but desiring full-time work also was unchanged in February at 6 million. That number has moved little since November.

Dive Insight:

The problem of stagnant wages (and of people unable to find desired full-time work) is widely seen as a problem in the U.S. economy, an issue underscored by the Labor Department's jobs report released Friday, which saw non-farm payrolls surge by 242,000 jobs in February (revised up for December and January by 30,000 more jobs). That holds the unemployment rate at a healthy 4.9%, leading to speculation once again that the Federal Reserve might raise its prime interest rate. 

But the hourly wage decline, noted by the government as a calendar-induced computing fluke, was nevertheless hailed by many economists as a bad sign.

The mixed picture is one retailers continue to face—that, despite a rebound from the Great Recession, consumers remain wary of spending. Indeed, several experts Retail Dive has spoken to on a variety of topics in recent months said that until the economy bounce reaches lower-income consumers, the lingering trauma from the Great Recession may not dissipate enough to please retailers, at least those catering to lower- and middle-income shoppers.

“We’re the most over-stored country, and there are several overwhelming problems,” Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York City-based retail consulting and investment banking firm Davidowitz & Associates Inc., told Retail Dive earlier this year regarding Kohl’s, a department store catering to the middle class. “People have less money and this economy isn’t helping. You cannot double your number of people in poverty in 10 years, build more stores, and not have some kind of gigantic shakeout. Kohl’s is slowing down because the middle class is getting killed.”