April 27, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Apparel spending down in 1997
Consumer expenditures on apparel decreased 1.3
percent in 1997, following a 2.8-percent increase in 1996 and a 3.6-percent rise in 1995.
Consumer units spent an average of $1,729 on clothing and related products in 1997, about
the same as the amount spent on entertainment and on health care.
![Annual change in average expenditures on apparel, 1990-97](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925085727im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Apr/wk4/art02.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
In 1997, decreases in spending on apparel for children under 2 years of age (down 6
percent), women and girls (down 5 percent), and men and boys (down 4 percent) offset
increases in expenditures on other apparel products and services (up 9 percent) and
footwear (up 5 percent). Other apparel products and services includes items such as
watches, jewelry, shoe repair, and dry cleaning.
Consumer units with only a husband and wife spent $1,801, compared with $2,550 for
consumer units where the husband and wife had children. Among the latter group, the
highest annual average expenditures on apparel were for units where the oldest child was
between the ages of 6 and 17.
These data are a product of the BLS Consumer
Expenditure Survey. Additional information is available from "Consumer
Expenditures in 1997", Report 927.
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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