A monthly executive opinion survey conduced by the National Retail Federation and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. shows that the U.S. retail sector performance index increased from 54.6% in September to 57.9% in October. What’s more, this October’s score was 20.3 percentage points above the same month last year. The index measures retail executives’ evaluations of monthly sales, customer traffic, the average transaction per customer, employment, inventory levels, and a six-month sales outlook.
“This survey shows that the health of the industry is becoming more of a certainty as retail executives continue to express more confidence in the state of their business,” said Michael Niemira, senior retail analyst for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. in a statement. “We are now starting to see growth in retail employment as retailers begin to hire for the holiday season.”