Retail sales slip 3.7 percent last month

WASHINGTON -- Retail sales plunged by a record 3.7 percent last month as the holiday shopping season was getting under way. But more recent information looks brighter for the economy, suggesting the huge wave of job layoffs is abating.

Noting the new government reports Thursday, analysts said they still believe the current recession, the country's first in a decade, will be a mild one that will be over by late spring.

The Commerce Department report on retail sales showed the big decline in November following an even larger increase of 6.4 percent in October. Both figures were records under the government's current tracking system, which goes back to 1992.

Both months were whipsawed by auto sales, which soared in October as dealers offered zero-rate financing deals to lure shoppers back into showrooms after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, only to retreat in November.