US Retail Sales Surge 0.6% in November 2025 – Holiday Shopping Powers Strongest Gain in Months

**US Retail Sales Jump 0.6% in November 2025 – Holiday Shopping Boosts Sales!**

Retail sales in the US made a strong comeback in November 2025, increasing by 0.6% from the previous month, reaching $735.9 billion, the Census Bureau reported on January 14, 2026. This number was better than what economists predicted (0.4–0.5%) and a big change from October’s -0.1% decrease. The holiday shopping season was a big reason for the increase, with many types of stores doing well, showing that people still want to spend money even with worries about tariffs and fewer new jobs.

If you take out things like cars, gas, building supplies, and food, retail sales still went up by 0.4%. This was much better than the expected -0.1% drop and suggests that consumer spending will be good in the fourth quarter, growing at around 2.8%. Stores selling sporting goods and hobbies (+1.9%), gas stations (+1.4%), home improvement stores (+1.3%), clothing and accessories shops (+0.9%), online retailers (+0.4%), and restaurants and bars (+0.6%) did especially well. Some stores saw small declines, like furniture stores (-0.3%), miscellaneous stores (-1.1%), general merchandise stores (-0.1%), and health/personal care stores (-0.1%), but even without car sales, there was still a 0.5% increase.

Compared to the year before, retail sales were up 3.3%, which is better than December’s inflation rate of 2.7%. This shows that people are still spending money, even though prices aren't going up as fast. These numbers are close to what the National Retail Federation expected for the holidays, predicting a 3–4% increase, with total sales of $1.01–1.02 trillion for November and December combined. While this report says that people are still willing to spend as we head into the end of the year, experts warn that things like lower consumer confidence and the Federal Reserve possibly not cutting interest rates in 2026 could make things less certain.