Worker productivity is among the most critical measurements used when evaluating businesses and national economies. One way to measure productivity is sales per employee. Companies that can achieve the highest revenue with…
Toys”R”Us will add 45,000 temporary jobs for the holidays. As retailers usually announce, some of these people may get full-time jobs. Of course, most will not. If consumers continue to be worried…
From October through December last year, U.S. retail payrolls added 660,200 workers according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That was barely more than the 647,600 seasonal workers added in 2010.…
Breaking with its past practice, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) said today that it plans to hire about 50,000 seasonal workers and to boost hours for its regular employees during the 2012…
In a move no doubt designed to stop supporting one of its main online rivals, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will no longer sell the Kindle family of e-readers and tablets from…
The number of U.S. smartphone owners who use either their mobile browser or a dedicated app to visit a retail site totaled 89.5 million in July, representing about 4 out of every…
Traditionally, consumers have either saved up for Christmas and holiday gift spending or added balances to their credit cards. That was before the recession and before the value hunt took off. The…
In 2010, U.S. firms hired an estimated 627,000 temporary workers to help meet demand for customer service, package handling and warehousing. Of that total, about 495,000 were hired in retail stores. Last…
According to today’s report from the U.S. Census Bureau, retail and food services sales in August rose 0.9% month-over-month and 4.7% compared with August 2011. Economists had been expecting an increase of…
courtesy NintendoAfter more than a year since the product’s introduction, the Nintendo Wii U game controller finally has pricing, shipping dates, and more details on what the device can do. The company…
Digital media research firm comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has released its ranking of the top 50 U.S. web properties for August and the list is topped, once again, by the usual suspects.…
A JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) analyst speculated that sales of the new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 could add “between 0.25% and 0.5% to annualized economic growth in the fourth quarter.”…
Consumers boosted their spending in July by a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, according to the latest Commerce Department data. That was the biggest gain in five months, as aftertax incomes continued to grow…
Several retailers are announcing August same-store sales today, and the reports are generally good. The good results are pushing share prices close to or above current highs. Here’s a rundown: Macy’s Inc.…
Troubled retailer Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), which was formed by a 2005 merger of Sears and Kmart, was thrown out of the S&P 500 as of September 4. It will be replaced by specialty chemical…
