Certainly, as the fear of the fiscal cliff looms, everyone has their ears and eyes set on Christmas and the holiday season in general. Typically, this is the largest economic stimulus time of the year, as people come out to purchase Christmas gifts and to enjoy before the New Year. The US retail industry generated approximately 2.88 trillion US dollars during the holidays in 2011. This reflects approximately 19.5% of the entire retail industry total sales for the year.
These numbers also have a great impact on the regional employment figures, as 608 thousand employees were hired last year to deal with the holiday rush. All eyes are on the stores today, and during this time in general, to see what this year will bring for the economic forecast.