The largest retail group in the country says it expects consumers to spend more this holiday season, but the growth in sales will be slower than last year.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) said its 2024 forecast shows winter holiday spending is expected to grow between 2.5% and 3.5% over 2023.
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In what is sure to have significant implications for millions of American workers, specifically gig economy workers and contractors, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its long-awaited final worker classification rule in January.
The new rule revises the process to determine whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government argues the rule is necessary to ensure that all workers are provided fair wages and overtime since independent contractors (people who work for themselves or a business on a contractual basis) are not given the same benefits, such as tax withholdings and paid time off, as traditional employees. However, this argument appears designed to mask the government’s true intention, which is to reduce the number of independent contractors in the country.
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Consumers are expected to cut back on discretionary spending this holiday season, hurting retailers, amid persistent inflation and declining savings, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The National Retail Federation anticipates consumer spending to rise around 3% to 4% in November and December, not including inflation, compared to a 5.4% increase that was observed in 2022 and a 5.4% gain in 2021 during the same time frame, according to the WSJ. In an effort to increase sales, many retailers are giving deeper discounts to lure consumers who may be apprehensive about buying products they don’t need, looking to boost their sales on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the last two weeks of December, when holiday deals typically occur.
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Individual spending on Fourth of July food items has risen to $93.34 on average across the U.S., the highest the National Retail Federation (NRF) has recorded since it began collecting this information in 2003.
The cost of one person’s July Fourth foods rose about 10 percent over the past year from $84.12, according to NRF. Inflation remained twice as high as the Federal Reserve’s target in May, according to a Labor Statistics (BLS) report, and the price of energy and food increased 4.0 percent on an annual basis last month.
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President Joe Biden is struggling to win in court as well as the court of public opinion when it comes to his response to COVID-19.
Biden’s approval rating on his handling of the pandemic has steadily dropped as he has issued more vaccine mandates, with one of those mandates seemingly dead in the water.
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Multiple trucking and retail groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Biden Administration, seeking to block implementation of the federal vaccine mandate, as reported by Breitbart.
The lawsuit, filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, is led by multiple organizations, including “the National Retail Federation, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the American Trucking Associations.” The suit specifically targets the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the primary federal agency that has been tasked by Biden to carry out the many sweeping vaccine mandates.
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Retail sales in the U.S. could rise between 6.5% and 8.2% to more than $4.3 trillion this year as more people get the COVID-19 vaccine and the economy reopens, according to the National Retail Federation.
NRF president Matthew Shay said the economy is expected to see its fastest growth in over two decades.
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