Retail, Food Sales Up

Numbers for July's retail and food services sales estimate experienced a slight increase of 0.5 percent over June, the U.S. Census Bureau announced August 12. Each month, the bureau sends out the Advance Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services Survey to 5,000 firms, and the respondents make up about 65 percent of the estimate.

July's increased sales of $390.4 million were adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, the agency noted. The estimate marked an increase of 8.5 percent over July 2010, according to the survey.

Retail sales were up 0.5 percent from June 2011 - 8.9 percent from June 2010. Sales from gas stations were up 23.6 percent from the previous year, and non-store retailers saw an increase of 14.1 percent from 2010, the survey found. Retail and food services sales from May to July 2011 were up 8.2 percent over the same period in 2010.

The uptick in sales numbers is one of a few recent positive trends in the economy. The number of unemployment claims recently fell to a four-month low, the U.S. Department of Labor announced, and a new CareerBuilder survey found the number of people living paycheck-to-paycheck dropped 1 percent over last year's number.