Women's Hiring Behind Record Hourly Wages for Shoe Stores Amid a tightening US labor market and burgeoning footwear sales, shoe store retailers are offering record pay to attract and retain workers, with the sector's workforce seeing a marked shift to hiring relatively more women than men. Recently the federal government reported its latest read on the country's employment situation, noting the unemployment rate fell in May to just 4.7%, the lowest in eight and a half years. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose a yearoveryear 2.5%. While much of the report fell short of expectations, the longterm trends of a gradually tightening labor market and rising wages remain intact. As the national unemployment rate falls and earnings rise, we see similar trends in shoe stores. At a seasonallyadjusted record of $17.44, average hourly earnings in the sector rose a yearoveryear 1.8% in April, higher 39 of the last 43 months. As the graph below demonstrates, higher wages come as employment in the sector grows, rising a yearoveryear 1.0% to a seasonallyadjusted 210,900 workers. This marks the highest April employment on record, matching the largest April shoe store sales on record as FDRA recently reported. (If you do not currently receive FDRA’s monthly Footwear Sales Analysis report and would like to do so, please contact us at [email protected]) Average Hourly Wages in Shoe Stores Rise to a Record to Attract & Retain Workers… 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 205 210 215 220 13.00 13.50 14.00 14.50 15.00 15.50 16.00 16.50 17.00 17.50 18.00 Thousands (SA) Dollars per Hour (SA) Hourly Earnings # Employees Source: BLS