Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing: NAICS 53

About the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector

The real estate and rental and leasing sector is part of the financial activities supersector.

The Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in renting, leasing, or otherwise allowing the use of tangible or intangible assets, and establishments providing related services. The major portion of this sector comprises establishments that rent, lease, or otherwise allow the use of their own assets by others. The assets may be tangible, as is the case of real estate and equipment, or intangible, as is the case with patents and trademarks.

This sector also includes establishments primarily engaged in managing real estate for others, selling, renting and/or buying real estate for others, and appraising real estate. These activities are closely related to this sector's main activity, and it was felt that from a production basis they would best be included here. In addition, a substantial proportion of property management is self-performed by lessors.

The main components of this sector are the real estate lessors industries (including equity real estate investment trusts (REITs)); equipment lessors industries (including motor vehicles, computers, and consumer goods); and lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets (except copyrighted works).

North American Industry Classification System

The real estate and rental and leasing sector consists of these subsectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in real estate and rental and leasing. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

2,490.7 2,495.7 (p)2,498.4 (p)2,501.9

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

2.9% 4.2% 3.0% 3.0%

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

Job openings

115 153 (p)201  

Hires

63 63 (p)91  

Separations

60 70 (p)94  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

3.5% 5.2% 3.6% 3.0%

Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

4.3% 6.5% 4.5% 3.8%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2022

Counter and rental clerks

179,870

Property, real estate, and community association managers

209,040

Real estate brokers

48,160

Real estate sales agents

157,260

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for real estate and rental and leasing.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings

Weekly earnings by union membership status are shown. Recent hourly and annual earnings for occupations commonly found in educational services. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Counter and rental clerks

$17.14 $18.04 $35,650 $37,510

Property, real estate, and community association managers

$28.52 $33.26 $59,310 $69,180

Real estate brokers

$29.13 $43.76 $60,590 $91,020

Real estate sales agents

$23.04 $28.86 $47,930 $60,020

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Employee Benefits

This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).

Data series Access Participation
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Private industry

Retirement benefit plans

68 52

Defined benefit plans

8 7

Defined contribution plans

68 51

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series After 1 year of service After 20 years of service
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans

10 18

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series Back
data
2023

Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits

Health care

77

Paid vacation

89

Paid sick leave

89

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023
4th quarter
2023

Private industry

12-month percent change

Total compensation

4.8% 3.8% 4.2% 3.3%

Wages and salaries

5.0% 4.2% 4.8% 3.8%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.3% 1.1% 1.2% -0.3%

Wages and salaries

1.5% 1.2% 1.4% -0.3%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series Private industry
Compensation component
($ per hour worked)
Percent of total compensation
Back
data
4th quarter 2023 Back
data
4th quarter 2023

Total compensation

37.07 100.0

Wages and salaries

26.64 71.9

Total benefits

10.43 28.1

Insurance

2.96 8.0

Retirement

0.68 1.8

Paid leave

2.74 7.4

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
Median weekly earnings
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Full-time workers

$1,001 $1,000 $1,088 $1,150

Members of unions

$1,081 $1,027 $1,160 $1,226

Represented by unions

$1,105 $995 $1,228 $1,151

Nonunion

$999 $1,001 $1,082 $1,150

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in real estate and rental and leasing. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

Data series 2019 2020 2021 2022

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

90 75 81 84

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series 2022

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

Total recordable cases

2.2

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

1.4

Cases involving days away from work

1.0

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

0.4

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in real estate and rental and leasing.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
4th quarter
2022
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023

Number of establishments

Private industry

482,357 (p)483,216 (p)486,475 (p)492,419

Local government

1,714 (p)1,714 (p)1,711 (p)1,714

State government

31 (p)36 (p)38 (p)38

Federal government

7 (p)7 (p)6 (p)7

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

 

Data extracted on: March 15, 2024