January sales for furniture and home furnishings retailers jumped 4% from the same month last year, but dipped slightly from December, The U.S. Department of Commerce said.

Sales for furniture and home furnishings sales grew to $8.798 billion in January compared to $8.461 billion in January 2015. January sales were down 0.5% from the $8.839 billion estimated for the sector in December, the report said.

Total U.S. retail and food services sales in January increased 3.4% to $449.9 billion from $434.9 billion a year ago and were up 0.2% from $449.1 billion in January.

Among the strongest performing sectors year-over-year were sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores with a 9.1% increase, and non-store retailers — primarily e-commerce and catalog businesses — up 8.7%. Non-store retailers posted the best gain compared to December, with sales up 1.6%.

Auto and auto parts dealers were up 6.9% from a year ago. Gasoline stations posted largest decrease year-over year, with revenues down 8.1%, and the greatest decline compared to December, with sales down 3.1%.

Sales at department stores, a subcategory of general merchandise stores, were down 3.8% from a year ago and down 0.8% from December.

According to a Reuters report, the overall sales increase points to a resilient economy, despite some concerns that a recession may be lurking.

“The markets may have decided that the U.S. is headed for recession, but obviously no one told U.S. consumers,” Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, told the news service.