Retail Sales Take 1.3% Leap in February : * Economy: Although the figure suggests that a recovery is under way, it is offset by news that jobless claims jumped.

Retail sales surged 1.3% in February, following an even sharper rise the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, providing fresh evidence that a recovery may be under way.

Sales of items ranging from new cars to building materials rose to a seasonally adjusted $157.7 billion, the government said. The February increase followed a January gain of 2.1%., revised upward from the 0.6% reported a month ago.

The last time the Commerce Department reported back-to-back increases totaling more than 1% each month was in August and September of 1985. The healthy increases for the first two months of this year followed a 0.8% increase for all of 1991.

In another reflection of the recession’s continuing toll, however, the Labor Department reported that 22,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed during the last week of February, raising the total to 459,000. Both jobless figures were the highest since Jan. 18, when claims rose to 460,000.

At the White House, press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the increase in retail sales was “widespread among major types of stores . . . with gains in building materials, hardware goods, general merchandise, automotive dealers, gasoline service stations, apparel and accessory stores.” He said the report was an indication “that the consumer has started the year on a more positive note than previously expected.”

Economists saw the new figures as the strongest signal yet that the recession may be ending, although the upturn may not be reflected in other indicators until midyear, they said. Analysts noted that any recovery is dependent on healthy retail sales, which represent two-thirds of the nation’s economy and account for roughly half of consumer spending.

“But we need to see two or three months of improvement like this to have more assurance that a recovery is under way,” said Don Hilty, chief economist at Chrysler Corp. “There are some hints of a recovery, but they’re very modest so far.”

His cautious optimism was echoed by John Goesling, chief financial officer for Nordstrom Inc., who said sales at the Seattle-based department store chain were up in January but that February brought only modest gains. He said sales were weakest in California, where half the chain’s stores are.

“The bottom line for us is the numbers won’t show significant improvement unless consumer confidence levels get stronger,” Goesling said.

Although most economists had expected retail sales to increase in February, the gain was about twice the estimates. The bullish report disappointed some stock market traders because it makes it less likely that the Federal Reserve Board will cut interest rates further to fight recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day unchanged at 3,208.63, and stocks generally declined in the broader market.

A key indicator in the retail report--new-car sales--showed a healthy increase of 1.4% after a gain of 2.5% in January. New cars account for about one-fifth of total retail numbers, so surges in demand strongly affect the monthly tallies.

Hilty said auto sales for January and February matched the “sales pace” for the previous year taken as a whole, “and they’re up from the very low levels of last year, but they’re still low if you compare them to healthier years.”

The strength of the retail sales figures varied from region to region. Increases were stronger in the Midwest and South than the hard-hit Northeast. The West showed no change, and California’s retail sales dropped 1.9%, led by a decline in durable goods.

The more important sign of the nation’s economic health, economists said, was the strong February retail sales figure, nearly double the 0.7% that had been expected. The newly reported figure contrasts with virtually flat sales in November and December of 1991.