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The thousands of temporary workers who lost their jobs after the holidays dampened the weekly unemployment report. But at least one retailer is hiring now. Home Depot said it would add 70,000 workers this spring, its biggest season. Last year about half that number were hired permanently as cashiers, sales, lot and garden staffers. Home Depot employs about 300,000 workers overall.

SAN FRANCISCO — Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Thursday it has cut its fiscal Q4 earnings outlook below Wall Street expectations due to heavy holiday promotions levels. The company said it had to offer discounts to entice shoppers this holiday season. Although earnings guidance has been reduced to below expectations, Williams-Sonoma’s revenue outlook remains in line with Wall Street, trimmed to a range of $1.24 billion to $1.26 billion. The company had previously expected revenue as high as $1.27 billion. In the eight weeks that ended on Dec. 25, Williams-Sonoma's revenue rose 4.2% to $901 million. Revenue from the company's

Zappos.com has announced the launch of the new fashion and celebrity weekly web series "The Trend" by Zappos Couture. The new web series, which airs every Monday on the Zappos Couture website and lives on the "Trends" tab, will feature unique and exclusive interviews with designers, A-list celebrities, and fashion icons-content that viewers will not find anywhere else.

With the holiday shopping season over, import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports should be nearly flat during January compared with the same month last year, but significant year-over-year increases are expected this spring, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

An Osaka department store's poorly translated sale sign was one of the classic English gaffes of our time. But the funny signs were quickly taken down after the internet freaked out about them. The store, Gallerie, caught wind of the global snicker in the final days of the sale.

In a twist on its proven formula, Target announced a new partnership series that brings local boutique owners, rather than internationally recognized fashion brands, into the mix of its successful high-low designer collaborations. Five boutiques from across the country have designed limited-edition collections that will be sold in Target stores and on Target.com beginning in May.

Redemption rates for mobile coupons are projected to rise to an average of 8% by 2016, an eightfold increase over rates for the most successful paper coupon campaigns, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The study projects that by 2016 there will be 600 million regular mobile coupon users worldwide, with total mobile coupon redemption values exceeding $43 billion, compared to $5 billion in 2011. Mobile coupons offer compelling advantages over paper and online coupons, particularly for brick-and-mortar retailers, because they bridge the gap between online and physical retailing and can be individually targeted to drive traffic

Home furnishings retailer Ikea plans to install solar energy panels on five more U.S. stores, all of them in the Midwest. Implementation of these projects will extend Ikea's solar presence to nearly 85 percent of its U.S. locations. Pending governmental permits, installation can begin this winter and completion is expected next summer.

Rue La La laid off 65 employees in Boston and other locations as its parent company Kynetic plans to fold sister property SmartBargains into Rue La La. While SmartBargains sells department store items, Rue La La sells upscale branded items to members only at a significant discount during 2-day sales events, called "flash sales."

Digital think tank L2 says that Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy's and NET-A-PORTER are the most "mobile-competent" among what it calls "prestige" brands. In L2's new study, Prestige 100 Mobile IQ, the most recognizable brands were measured across 250 parameters, including their mobile sites, apps, marketing approaches and innovation.