Consumers picked up their spending in June after an earlier pullback, despite anxiety over tariffs and the state of the U.S. economy.

Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.6% in June, the Commerce Department said Thursday, after two consecutive months of spending declines, a 0.1% pullback in April and a 0.9% slowdown in May.

Retail was buoyed earlier in the year by car sales as Americans attempted to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and car parts.

The erratic consumer spending is taking place during a period of mixed signals about the economy as well. The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March, but the U.S. job market is proving to be very resilient, and major tariffs keep getting postponed.

Healthy spending continues, with a heavy focus on necessities, rather than electronics or new appliances.

Yet consumers haven’t completely cut out spending on nonessential goods. Sales at restaurants, the lone services component within the Census Bureau report and a barometer of discretionary spending, rose moderately.

Retail sales in June included a 1.2% gain in sales of autos and auto parts. Spending expanded across most major categories including clothing and personal care. Excluding autos and automotive parts, sales rose 0.5%, according to the Commerce Department

Clothing and accessories sales rose 0.9%, while health and personal care sales saw a 0.5% bump. Online retailers recorded a 0.4% gain.

Electronics and appliance retailers, furniture stores and department stores all saw sales declines. The products sold in these sectors are heavily imported.

A category of sales that excludes volatile sectors such as gas, cars, and restaurants rose last month by 0.5% from the previous month. The figure feeds into the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s consumption estimate and is sign that consumers are still spending on some discretionary items.

The latest government report on inflation showed that it rose last month to its highest level since February as Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the costs of everything from groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances.

Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.

Minnesota jobs data flat in June

Minnesota’s employment level, unemployment rate and labor force were largely unchanged in June, according to data Thursday from the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Minnesota lost 800 jobs in June, effectively flat, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.3%. More than 2,100 Minnesotans joined the labor force, and the labor force participation rate was also unchanged at 68.2%. This measures the number of people working or actively seeking work as a percentage of the population.

By comparison, the nation’s unemployment rate was 4.1% in June and the labor force participation rate was 62.3%.

Settlement reached in Meta privacy case

A settlement was announced Thursday in court in a class action investors’ lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and current and former company leaders over claims stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.

The suit had sought billions of dollars in reimbursement for fines and legal costs. No details on the settlement were shared when it was announced in Delaware’s Court of Chancery at the start of what would have been the second day of trial, at which point nothing related to the settlement had been filed with the court.

The attorneys involved left court without commenting. A communications representative from Meta said the company had no comment.

Investors had alleged in the lawsuit that Meta did not fully disclose the risks to Facebook users that their personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016. Shareholders say Facebook officials repeatedly violated a 2012 consent order with the Federal Trade Commission under which Facebook agreed to stop collecting and sharing personal data without users’ consent.

— From news services