Food and Beverage Stores: NAICS 445

About the Food and Beverage Stores subsector

The food and beverage stores subsector is part of the retail trade sector.

The food and beverage stores subsector consists of these industry groups:

• Grocery Stores: NAICS 4451
• Specialty Food Stores: NAICS 4452
• Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores: NAICS 4453

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in food and beverage stores. These data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment

Data series	Back data	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		3,234.5	3,237.0	(p)3,220.4	(p)3,241.1
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees		2,933.3	2,893.6	(p)2,880.3
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series	Employment, 2024
Butchers and meat cutters	104,050
Cashiers	914,620
First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers	187,170
Food preparation workers	186,230
Stock clerks and order fillers	648,980

(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 food and beverage stores.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in food and beverage stores.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

Data series	Back data	Nov. 2024	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$21.87	$21.98	$22.02	(p)$22.02
Average weekly hours		29.0	29.2	28.7	(p)29.6
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series	Back data	Nov. 2024	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$17.86	$17.80	$18.14	(p)$18.05
Average weekly hours		28.4	28.6	28.1	(p)28.3
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series	Wages, 2024
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Butchers and meat cutters	18.23	19.26	37,930	40,060
Cashiers	15.13	15.70	31,470	32,650
First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers	23.39	25.47	48,640	52,980
Food preparation workers	16.89	16.63	35,130	34,590
Stock clerks and order fillers	17.09	17.03	35,540	35,410

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

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 food and beverage stores. 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	54	72	66	65
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series	2023
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	3.9
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.6
Cases involving days away from work	1.5
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	1.2
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.

Data series	Back data	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025
Producer price index		(p)266.891	(p)280.089	(p)280.296	(p)274.020
Percent change from previous month		(p)-0.3%	(p)4.9%	(p)0.1%	(p)-2.2%
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in food and beverage stores. Also included in this section is information on productivity, presented as the rate of change in output per hour of workers in the industry.

Establishments

Data series	Back data	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Number of establishments
Private industry		160,769	(p)160,585	(p)161,442	(p)162,011
Local government		463	(p)464	(p)464	(p)465
State government		433	(p)431	(p)432	(p)432
Federal government		204	(p)203	(p)205	(p)205
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

This section presents productivity and related data for the industry, presented as the percent change from the previous year. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked. Growth in unit labor costs represent the annual change in the labor cost of producing one unit of output.

Data series	Back data	2021	2022	2023	2024
Labor productivity, output per hour		2.3	-2.3	-0.1
Hours worked		-0.9	0.5	-1.2	-1.8
Output		1.4	-1.8	-1.3
Unit labor costs		1.3	7.1	6.7

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: April 29, 2025