(Wines&Vines) - Steady growth in domestic wine sales, characterized by confident consumers and online purchases, helped buoy hiring activity among wineries in November.

Total sales of U.S. wine grew 6% to $3.5 billion in November 2016, according to market-research firm bw166.com, staying steady with the trend exhibited through much of this year. Similarly, direct-to-consumer (DtC) shipments in November were the second-strongest of 2016 at $332 million, based on figures from Wines Vines Analytics and ShipCompliant—this was up 7% from November 2015.