Research & Data
U.S. retail and food services sales rose 0.8% in September, but most of the increase came from gasoline stations. Excluding gas stations, sales rose just 0.2%, according to the Census Bureau’s advance estimate released Oct. 15.
Total retail and food services sales were $745.0 billion in September, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences but not for price changes. The monthly gain had a margin of error of plus or minus 0.4 percentage point. Sales were up 6.3% from September 2025.
Gasoline did the heavy lifting
Sales at gasoline stations rose 6.4% from August and were 28.1% higher than a year earlier, the largest year-over-year increase of any major category in the report. Because the figures are not adjusted for prices, the report cannot separate higher fuel prices from more fuel sold.
With gas stations stripped out, sales rose 0.2% for the month. Excluding both motor vehicle and parts dealers and gas stations, sales also rose 0.2%, and the Census Bureau’s chart flags that increase as not statistically different from zero. Sales excluding only autos rose 0.9%.
A narrower measure that many forecasters use as a proxy for consumer spending, the so-called control group, excludes autos, gasoline, building materials and food services. Census does not publish that series directly. A calculation from the bureau’s seasonally adjusted Table 1 puts it at about $400.2 billion in September, up roughly 0.1% from August.
Mixed results across stores
Results varied by type of store. Restaurants and bars, the food services and drinking places category, rose 1.1%. Furniture and home furnishings stores rose 1.3%, health and personal care stores 0.7%, electronics and appliance stores 0.6%, and food and beverage stores 0.4%. Nonstore retailers, which include online sellers, rose 0.3%, and motor vehicle and parts dealers rose 0.2%.
Other categories fell. Miscellaneous store retailers dropped 3.0%, building material and garden suppliers 0.6%, sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores 0.5%, and general merchandise stores 0.1%. Clothing stores were unchanged.
August was revised up
The August gain was revised to 1.3% from the 1.1% first reported, with August sales now estimated at $739.3 billion. Sales for July through September were 5.5% higher than in the same period of 2025. The release notes that monthly retail estimates were revised on Sept. 28 as part of an annual revision, so comparisons with earlier published figures should use the updated series.
Why it matters for job seekers
Retail sales measure spending, not employment, and this report says nothing directly about how many people stores and restaurants are hiring. What it does show is where consumer dollars went in September: a large share went to fuel, while spending at many other kinds of stores was flat or lower. For people looking for work in retail, the steadier categories in this report were restaurants and some specialty stores. Hiring data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will show whether employers are actually adding staff.
The catch
This is an advance estimate based on a subsample of about 4,800 retail and food services firms, and it will be revised next month. The figures are in current dollars, so in a month when fuel prices are rising, a gain in sales can overstate how much more consumers are actually buying. Several category changes are small enough to fall within their margins of error. The October advance report is scheduled for Nov. 17.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, “Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services, September 2026” (CB26-165), October 15, 2026. https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf
- U.S. Census Bureau, “Monthly Retail Trade – Sales Report,” October 15, 2026. https://www.census.gov/retail/sales.html
Featured photo: Fuel pumps at a Pilot Flying J gas station in Cleveland, Tennessee, photographed Sept. 27, 2025. Representative image; not a location named in the Census report. Photo: Harrison Keely, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Cropped from the original.
