A sports club said this week it is recruiting for dozens of retail jobs in Boston.

Town Sports International is looking to fill more than 1,000 jobs in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

TSI is looking for new employees that have a passion for fitness and serving others. The company is currently hiring personal trainers, club managers, membership consultants, laundry and cleaning associates, facilities technicians and specialized instructors for tennis, swimming and squash. (more…)

The Federal Reserve said the economy continues to grow modestly and points to shaky growth of retail jobs in Boston as proof.

In a press release, the Reserve said economy continued to grow modestly in recent weeks across most of the country, but activity slowed or was unchanged in four of 12 regions, the Federal Reserve said in a report Wednesday that underscored that the recovery has lost some steam.

The slower-growth theme was also reflected in other reports that showed a dip in durable goods orders and rise in unemployment in many metro areas.

The Fed’s beige book pointed to a distinct drop-off compared with its June survey, which showed all 12 districts expanding for the first time since 2007. The new study, which covered mid-June to mid-July, said the economies in the Cleveland and Kansas City areas were unchanged and the Atlanta and Chicago regions were slowing. (more…)

The state of Massachusetts is attracting a variety of businesses in the retail industry to fill vacant buildings around the city, creating optimism that retail jobs in Boston will increase in the coming year.

Major retailers like Best Buy, Savers and Ultimate Electronics will be expanding or setting up shop in Boston.

These various merchants have signed leases for roughly 2 million square feet of retail space left empty by bankrupt retailers such as Circuit City, Linens ‘n Things, and CompUSA.

According to Boston.com, real estate brokers provided the optimistic data.

Among the retailers opening up new jobs in the area are:

Savers: a thrift store chain based in Washington, opened in a North Attleborough building.

So why are retailers setting up shop here? According to Boston.com, it’s because the Massachusetts economy is improving far more rapidly than in other parts of the country. While land is actually priced higher than the national average, this has in fact been a draw for companies who bought cheaper land in poorer areas and failed or went out of business quickly.

The thriving metropolis of Boston is proving to be quite a draw for retailers.

New England Development, which just bought space in Westgate Mall in Brockton.

Best Buy, which is opening a store in Plymouth.

Hundreds of Boston retail jobs have been cut as a large chain store recently decided to close.

Tweeter, a local electronics chain that has found itself bankrupt, recently announced its decision to fire more than 600 employees at 70 stores across the country. These actions took place only days before the company was originally slated to close for good. The store had about 150 employees in Massachusetts, according to an article by The Boston Globe.

Many employees who lost their jobs are still owed at least one week’s pay, vacation time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses promised as part of a liquidation sale. Furthermore, many customers are unable to pick up merchandise they already purchased, and the liquidators handling the closing also have yet to be paid. There is still about $14 million worth of goods left in the stores.

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