Sales at retailers stagnated in June as rising unemployment held consumers back, Bloomberg reported.

The Department of Commerce reported a 0.1 percent increase in retail sales. Excluding auto sales, purchases were little changed, the weakest performance since last July.

Total sales were helped by an unexpected increase in demand at auto dealers. Increasing joblessness prompted stores such as Target Corp. and Gap Inc. to give more discounts to lure customers as a dearth of jobs raises the risk that household purchases will have difficulty picking up for the rest of the year.

“Consumers are cautious,” said Michelle Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in an interview with Bloomberg. “There is still pretty slow momentum. It still shows we’re in a fragile recovery.”

Six of 13 major categories showed a decline in sales in June, led by a 1.3 percent drop at gasoline stations and a 0.8 percent decrease at furniture stores. In addition to auto dealers, gains were led by department store and building material merchants.