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A woman walks past a \u201cNow Hiring\u201d sign in front of a store on January 13, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\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>\u2018s 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 \u201cThis still shows how resilient spending has been, even amid a lot of the uncertainty,\u201d said Cory Stahle, senior economist at job search platform Indeed. \u201cIt\u2019s an encouraging sign for the industry and for the economy more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\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>\nRising confidence<\/h3>\n