I still say structural

From the Atlantic online: Today's report provides data for the major retailers through the third quarter. Net sales and profits have both increased year-over-year. Sales rose by 5.5%, and profits jumped by 7.5%.

During this 12-month period, however, the industry added just 80,000 jobs.This hiring increased the retail sector's labor force by just 0.6%. That isn't much compared to the 5.5% increase in sales.

So if revenues and are growing, why isn't hiring as quickly? It must not have to. Remember, over this period profits rose by 7.5%, an even larger margin. This means that most retailers didn't need to bring on more workers to satisfy the consumer demand that they experienced. Indeed, they made more money by hiring fewer of their workers back. In other words, they were likely overstaffed to begin with.

Technology and cultural changes in service expectation hadn't fully registered in retail (and I believe elsewhere) because of the stickiness of employment.