An official website of the United States government
The retail trade sector is part of the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector.
The Retail Trade sector comprises establishments engaged in retailing merchandise, generally without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise.
The retailing process is the final step in the distribution of merchandise; retailers are, therefore, organized to sell merchandise in small quantities to the general public. This sector comprises two main types of retailers: store and nonstore retailers.
1. Store retailers operate fixed point-of-sale locations, located and designed to attract a high volume of walk-in customers. In general, retail stores have extensive displays of merchandise and use mass-media advertising to attract customers. They typically sell merchandise to the general public for personal or household consumption, but some also serve business and institutional clients. In addition to retailing merchandise, some types of store retailers are also engaged in the provision of after-sales services, such as repair and installation.
2. Nonstore retailers, like store retailers, are organized to serve the general public, but their retailing methods differ. The establishments of this subsector reach customers and market merchandise with methods, such as the broadcasting of "infomercials," the broadcasting and publishing of direct-response advertising, the publishing of paper and electronic catalogs, door-to-door solicitation, in-home demonstration, selling from portable stalls (street vendors, except food), and distribution through vending machines.
North American Industry Classification System
The retail trade sector consists of these subsectors:
This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in retail trade. 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, gross job gains and losses, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.
Data series | Back data |
Jun. 2024 |
Jul. 2024 |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment (in thousands) |
|||||
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted) |
15,664.9 | 15,661.3 | (p)15,652.5 | (p)15,668.1 | |
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted) |
13,418.6 | 13,432.3 | (p)13,433.1 | (p)13,461.4 | |
Unemployment |
|||||
5.3% | 5.3% | 5.4% | 5.0% | ||
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands) |
|||||
585 | 707 | 666 | (p)591 | ||
787 | 701 | 620 | (p)591 | ||
657 | 705 | 689 | (p)562 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)
Data series | Back data |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Union membership and representation |
|||||
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
4.6% | 4.4% | 4.3% | 3.7% | |
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
5.1% | 5.0% | 5.0% | 4.5% |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Data series | Back data |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
867 | 841 | 762 | 826 | ||
898 | 906 | 873 | 725 |
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)
Data series | Employment, 2023 |
---|---|
2,739,960 | |
512,720 | |
965,140 | |
3,319,640 | |
1,825,330 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for retail trade.
(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)
This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in retail trade. 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.
Data series | Back data |
Jun. 2024 |
Jul. 2024 |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$24.42 | $24.44 | (p)$24.56 | (p)$24.56 | ||
29.6 | 29.7 | (p)29.7 | (p)29.5 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Data series | Back data |
Jun. 2024 |
Jul. 2024 |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$20.93 | $20.90 | (p)$20.99 | (p)$20.95 | ||
30.2 | 30.2 | (p)30.2 | (p)30.3 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Data series | Wages, 2023 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Hourly | Annual | |||
Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
$14.33 | $14.76 | $29,810 | $30,700 | |
$16.90 | $17.65 | $35,160 | $36,700 | |
$22.35 | $24.77 | $46,480 | $51,520 | |
$16.18 | $17.58 | $33,650 | $36,570 | |
$16.80 | $17.00 | $34,940 | $35,360 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).
Data series | Access | Participation | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Private industry |
||||
77 | 39 | |||
9 | 5 | |||
74 | 35 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | After 1 year of service | After 20 years of service | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans |
7 | 16 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | Back data |
2024 |
---|---|---|
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits |
||
55 | ||
70 | ||
69 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
2nd quarter 2024 |
3rd quarter 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Private industry |
|||||
12-month percent change |
|||||
4.1% | 2.7% | 3.1% | 2.9% | ||
4.3% | 3.1% | 3.4% | 3.0% | ||
3-month percent change |
|||||
0.5% | 0.3% | 1.5% | 0.6% | ||
0.6% | 0.2% | 1.5% | 0.6% |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Data series | Private industry | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Compensation component ($ per hour worked) |
Percent of total compensation | |||
Back data |
2nd quarter 2024 | Back data |
2nd quarter 2024 | |
24.99 | 100.0 | |||
19.31 | 77.3 | |||
5.68 | 22.7 | |||
1.36 | 5.4 | |||
0.48 | 1.9 | |||
1.26 | 5.0 |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Data series | Back data |
Median weekly earnings | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
Union membership and representation |
|||||
$721 | $744 | $814 | $846 | ||
$731 | $763 | $780 | $849 | ||
$728 | $766 | $797 | $852 | ||
$721 | $742 | $815 | $846 |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
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 retail trade. 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 |
||||
291 | 275 | 263 | 302 | |
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 |
|
3.7 | |
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer |
2.5 |
1.7 | |
0.8 | |
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)
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 |
Jun. 2024 |
Jul. 2024 |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
(p)158.538 | (p)155.687 | (p)157.362 | (p)157.964 | ||
Percent change from previous month |
(p)-0.3% | (p)-1.8% | (p)1.1% | (p)0.4% | |
Footnotes |
(Source: Producer Price Indexes)
This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in retail trade. Also included in this section is information on productivity, presented as the rate of change in output per hour of workers in the industry.
Data series | Back data |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of establishments |
|||||
1,069,522 | 1,073,704 | 1,077,309 | (p)1,081,728 | ||
718 | 719 | 716 | (p)716 | ||
434 | 434 | 438 | (p)438 | ||
711 | 715 | 715 | (p)709 | ||
Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
With job gains (seasonally adjusted) |
266 | 260 | 263 | 265 | |
With job losses (seasonally adjusted) |
283 | 279 | 274 | 266 | |
Footnotes |
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)
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 |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
8.8 | 6.1 | -1.2 | 1.6 | ||
-4.8 | 3.4 | -0.8 | -0.1 | ||
3.6 | 9.6 | -2.0 | 1.6 | ||
-0.6 | 2.6 | 5.5 | 0.5 |
(Source: Productivity)
Data extracted on: October 31, 2024