July 06, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Expenditures on apparel down in 2003
Among the major components of consumer spending, only the apparel and services category saw statistically significant change in 2003, a 6.2-percent decrease.
[Chart data—TXT]
The decrease in spending on apparel and services in 2003 was similar to the 6.1-percent decline in 2001. Spending on apparel and services rose just 0.3 percent in 2002.
Spending decreased in 2003 for men’s and boys’ apparel (-9.2 percent), women’s and girls’ apparel (-9.9 percent), apparel for children under 2 years (-1.4 percent), and footwear (-6.1 percent), whereas spending on other apparel products and services rose 7.8 percent. This last category includes items such as watches and jewelry, and services such as laundry, and drycleaning.
The trend in the share of total expenditures spent on apparel and services has been downward over the last several years, possibly due to the competition from cheaper imported clothing as well as a shift to more casual, less expensive styles. In 1993, apparel and services accounted for 5.5 percent of total spending; by 2003, the share had fallen to 4.0 percent.
These data come from the Consumer Expenditure
Survey. Find out more in "Consumer Expenditures in
2003," (PDF 129K), BLS Report 986.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »