This Week in Retail: Monthly jobs report and AI roundtable

It’s the last week before Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer and the tail end of the back-to-school shopping season. How it all shook out for retailers is still hard to say. Q2 earnings are just about finished, and they only covered the early days of the season. And retail spending data for August is still a couple weeks out.

In the meantime, here’s what else is going on retail this week:

In earnings: On the earnings front, the big names have all reported Q2 results, but there are a few stragglers this week from across the industry. In a discounter double feature, Five Below and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet report on Wednesday. Then Victoria’s Secret and Lululemon report on Thursday for a nice cross-section of women’s apparel brands. The Campbell’s Company also reports on Thursday for a look at a major CPG brand.

In webinars: The Retail AI Council is hosting a digital roundtable on Tuesday featuring Sneha Odedra, manager of CRM and consumer insights at Sally Beauty Europe. The virtual event will discuss the “messy middle of agentic AI—where bold pilots meet real operational and budget constraints,” per the event description. The idea is to help retail leaders prepare for the upcoming holiday season and ultimately demonstrate results on their AI initiatives.

In reports: The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly employment report for August is due out on Friday. The last report showed the unemployment rate hitting 4.1% in July, as employers shed 23,000 roles. That report also revised previous measures downward, indicating the job market was weaker than expected. The retail sector overall lost 19,000 jobs in July, with general merchandise retailers losing 21,000 jobs, after a 12 months of little change.