Unemployment remained at 3.8%, the lowest rate since 1974. Additionally, wages sustained strong levels of growth in Q2, with pay increasing by 3.4% in the three months to May, beating analysts’ forecasts. The concern for the broader retail sector could be that strong wage growth may lead to higher levels of inflation.
Consumer confidence fell again in June 2019, dropping to -13 according to GfK. Despite this, retail sales witnessed another fairly strong period of growth in June, with sales up 3.8% compared to June 2018. Perhaps unsurprisingly, department stores were the only part of non-food retailing to see falling sales, falling by 0.2% in the three months to June.