WASHINGTON - Retail sales, which had taken a sharp plunge in June, rebounded by 0.7 percent last month while the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-week low in early August.
Economists saw both the rise in retail sales and a decline of 4,000 in the number of laid-off workers filing for jobless benefits, reported by the government Thursday, as hopeful signs the economy is rebounding from a worrisome pause in activity in the early summer.
The Commerce Department (news - web sites) said the 0.7 percent gain in retail sales last month followed a revised 0.5 percent decline in June.
While the July rebound was smaller than the 1 percent advance that many economists had been expecting, the 0.5 percent June drop was revised upward from a much worse 1.1 percent decline that the government had originally reported.
