There's a great story at the Washington Post today about the interplay between retail spending and retail hiring. Specifically, the Post notes that because the holiday shopping season looks so grim, retailers aren't doing much of the seasonal hiring they typically do this time of year. More below ..."This is the time of year when retail jobs are supposed to be as plentiful as holiday cheer, when stores gear up for the Christmas rush by filling their sales floors with college students, moonlighters and anyone else looking to shore up their income."But no one is feeling very jolly this year."Faced with plummeting sales and spooked shoppers, retailers have cut back on holiday hiring at a time when their pool of applicants is swelling with those who have been laid off from other industries. About 272,000 retail jobs were open at the end of

Sharps Compliance Corp. announced record revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Revenues jumped 26%, to $4.3 million, from the same quarter last year. Sharps also reported record customer billings of $4.7 million for the quarter, a 30% increase over the same period the year before.

The increase in billings came partly from contracts and patent renewals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, which are expected to continue contributing to billings and revenue growth in fiscal 2009. In addition, customer billings to retail markets increased 23% as a result of strong flu-season demand for the Sharps Disposal By Mail Systems®. There were also higher billings to the professional, commercial, and agricultural markets. The only billing declines were in the healthcare and hospitality markets.

Gross profit was $1.8 million, up 29% over the prior year period. Gross margin was 43.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, a 100 basis point increase compared