US retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June | GoErie.com/Erie Times-News

Americans cut their spending at retail businesses for a third straight month, as a weak job market has made consumers more cautious.

Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June from May, the Commerce Department said Monday.

Consumers spent less on autos, furniture, appliances, on building and garden supplies and at department stores.

"However hard you look, there's just no good news in this report at all," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The drop in sales followed declines in the previous two months. Retail sales haven't fallen for three straight months since the fall of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

Despite the declines, retail sales were still 4.7 percent higher in the April-June period than in the second quarter of 2011.

Some of the weakness in recent months reflects falling gas prices. But even excluding sales at gas stations, retail spending fell 0.3 percent between May and June.

Consumers have grown less confident in the economy this spring. Hiring has slumped and wages have barely kept pace with inflation, keeping budgets tight. As a result, consumers have pulled back sharply on their spending, which drives 70 percent of economic activity.

"Recent weak jobs data have certainly done nothing to alter our view that consumer spending growth will be very modest at best in the quarters ahead," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc. "A silver lining in the economic clouds is that lower gasoline prices are helping to cushion the consumer."

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-- from wire reports

Source: http://www.goerie.com/article/20120717/BUSINESS05/307179954/US-retail-sales-fell-05-percent-in-June

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