A woman walks past a “Now Hiring” sign in front of a store on January 13, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Retailers<\/a> are ramping up hiring<\/a> this year, defying economic concerns as consumers keep shopping.<\/p>\n The retail trades added nearly 22,000 jobs in April, accounting for almost one-fifth of total job growth, according to preliminary federal data released Friday. Nearly 15.5 million employees now hold retail industry jobs, the most since July 2024.<\/p>\n Consumers have kept their wallets open in the face of war in Iran, higher gasoline prices, faster inflation and President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s tariff<\/a> policy. Lately, a solid consumer has left retailers confident enough to hire more workers to stock shelves or staff cash registers. <\/p>\n “This still shows how resilient spending has been, even amid a lot of the uncertainty,” said Cory Stahle, senior economist at job search platform Indeed. “It’s an encouraging sign for the industry and for the economy more broadly.”<\/p>\n Rising confidence<\/p>\n Warehouse clubs and supercenters were among the retailers driving sector hiring in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Department stores, and sellers of electronics and appliances, saw payrolls shrink.<\/p>\n The labor market gained 38,000 courier and messenger jobs in April, representing roughly a third of all positions added in the month. That partly compensated for jobs lost earlier this year due to weather, according to Eugenio\u00a0Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James.<\/p>\n Growth in retail and transportation helped total job growth come in far ahead of economists’ expectations<\/a> for April.<\/p>\n Retailers also posted their highest volume of monthly job openings since 2023 in March, a separate report of preliminary government data found. The sector’s number of openings spiked 48% from the same month a year ago. Economy wide, the total number of listings fell over the same period.<\/p>\n Retail’s hiring surge reflects growing optimism that consumers will keep spending in the face of economic shocks, Stahle said. It’s a reversal from 2025, when companies worried that Trump’s tariffs would create cost pressures and lead to a pullback in demand, he said.<\/p>\n There were “a lot of employers holding their breath last year,” Stahle said. “Now, these employers can feel maybe a little more confident as they step forward.”<\/p>\n Red flags<\/p>\n But while consumers appear ready to keep spending for now, warnings signs are flashing. <\/p>\n Whirlpool<\/a> on Wednesday cited a “recession-level industry decline”<\/a> in the U.S. as the Iran War<\/a> battered consumer confidence. A day later, McDonald’s<\/a> CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts that consumer spending “may be getting a little bit worse.”<\/a><\/p>\n The University of Michigan on Friday reported another record low consumer sentiment reading. <\/a> Sentiment was hurt by the rising price of gas caused by the war<\/a>, according to survey director Joanne Hsu.<\/p>\n