Retailers’ Outlook Improves Through An Uncertain Recovery Based On 5th COVID-19 Survey
Ken Cassar
June 15, 2020
“May you live in interesting times,” goes the ancient curse. Sadly, we are living in the most interesting times that generations of Americans have ever experienced. Mixed signals and confusion, it seems, are par for the course in interesting times. On June 5th we learned the U.S. unemployment rate for May was 13.3%—and this was considered good news despite the fact that, prior to COVID-19, unemployment hadn’t exceeded 10% since World War II. Retailers have felt acute pain driven by the stay-at-home and social distancing requirements caused by COVID-19. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that April 2020 retail sales were 16% below March,
