U.S. Holiday Sales Better Than Expected

Today the New York Times reported that November retail sales in the U.S. were almost twice as high as expected. November retail sales rose 1.3 percent over those in October. Furthermore, November 2009 sales were 1.9 percent higher than those in November 2008. These statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau, and you can find additional details in today's release, "Advance Monthly Sales for Food and Retail Services, November 2009." To compare retail sales for other years dating back to 1992, and to find sales broken down into different categories, you can select tables from this Time Series Data web page.

The Census Bureau provides other quick facts and numbers about the holiday on its fact sheet, "Facts for Features: The 2009 Holiday Season." To find additional online sources of statistics on the U.S. economy, please see our guide to business and economics.