Consumer spending up

Americans increased their spending last month as inflation eased in many areas, and the job market remained remarkably strong.

Retail sales rose 0.2% from May to June, following a revised 0.5% increase the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The figure matched the pace of consumer inflation in June from the prior month, underscoring that shoppers are just about keeping up with pricing pressures.

While the headline number of 0.2% was a bit weaker than expected, economists focused on data that excludes volatile autos, gas, building materials and food services, which rose a solid 0.6% in June. That 0.6% figure is used to help calculate overall economic growth in the U.S., and it was a pretty strong showing in June.

Flex-work firms hiring faster

Companies with flexible inoffice policies are hiring faster than those that have fully returned to pre-pandemic attendance rules. But landing a flexible job still comes with challenges.

New research from Scoop Technologies Inc., which advises organizations on how to coordinate hybrid staffing, compared headcount growth at roughly 3,600 fully-flexible, hybrid and entirely in-office companies. It found that flexible outfits — those with hybrid, fully-remote or electively-remote staffs — added headcount at more than two times the rate of fully inoffice counterparts during the March-through-May period.

“Companies grow faster when they offer flexibility because people are more excited to join,” said Rob Sadow, co-founder and chief executive officer of Scoop. Prospective employees rank flexibility second only to compensation when it comes to workplace satisfaction, meaning that consistent headcount growth might be explained in part by talent flocking to flexible firms, he added.