#JusJoJan: Seasonal

Kaye brings us today’s word, seasonal.

Grocery stores sell more ice cream in summer, and more hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Department stores sell the most swimsuits from mid-April through August, and more winter coats from October through the early part of December. Sporting goods stores sell more golf balls and tennis balls in the spring and summer and more ice skates in the fall and winter. Fall clothes come out in September and spring clothes come out in February.

Those are examples of seasonal items. Another seasonal item is unemployment: it tends to be lower during the Christmas season, when stores are staffing up for the Christmas rush, and higher during the late spring, when students are looking for summer jobs.

I was going to go into a long discussion of time series and seasonal and cyclical adjustments, but I figure you’d rather read what Wikipedia has to say about it…