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Retail Trade: NAICS 44-45

About the Retail Trade sector

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:

Workforce Statistics

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.

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)

15,570.4 15,602.7 (p)15,617.9 (p)15,636.6

Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)

13,312.4 13,348.3 (p)13,353.8 (p)13,356.1

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

3.8% 4.1% 5.0% 5.1%

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

Job openings

511 682 (p)416  

Hires

726 491 (p)507  

Separations

619 601 (p)650  

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)

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)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

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

Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)

Gross job gains

954 804 880 859

Gross job losses

920 903 729 898

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2022

Cashiers

2,731,400

Customer service representatives

550,610

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

976,430

Retail salespersons

3,288,230

Stock clerks and order fillers

1,815,180

(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 retail trade.

(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, 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.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

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

Average hourly earnings

$24.10 $24.25 (p)$24.22 (p)$24.17

Average weekly hours

30.0 29.7 (p)29.4 (p)29.8

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

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

Average hourly earnings

$20.65 $20.72 (p)$20.75 (p)$20.82

Average weekly hours

30.3 30.2 (p)30.1 (p)30.3

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Cashiers

$13.60 $13.83 $28,290 $28,760

Customer service representatives

$15.75 $16.52 $32,750 $34,370

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

$21.54 $23.84 $44,790 $49,590

Retail salespersons

$14.67 $16.60 $30,510 $34,520

Stock clerks and order fillers

$15.13 $15.75 $31,460 $32,750

(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

74 38

Defined benefit plans

9 6

Defined contribution plans

70 34

(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

6 16

(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

55

Paid vacation

72

Paid sick leave

69

(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

5.4% 4.7% 4.5% 4.1%

Wages and salaries

5.5% 4.8% 4.7% 4.3%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.6% 1.1% 0.8% 0.5%

Wages and salaries

1.4% 1.2% 0.9% 0.6%

(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

25.08 100.0

Wages and salaries

19.30 76.9

Total benefits

5.78 23.1

Insurance

1.35 5.4

Retirement

0.48 1.9

Paid leave

1.27 5.1

(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

$721 $744 $814 $846

Members of unions

$731 $763 $780 $849

Represented by unions

$728 $766 $797 $852

Nonunion

$721 $742 $815 $846

(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 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

Number of 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

Total recordable cases

3.7

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

2.5

Cases involving days away from work

1.7

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

0.8

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
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Producer price index

(p)158.418 (p)157.941 (p)155.095 (p)156.047

Percent change from previous month

  (p)-1.9% (p)-0.3% (p)-1.8% (p)0.6%

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

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.

Establishments

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

Number of establishments

Private industry

1,067,544 (p)1,068,151 (p)1,071,735 (p)1,076,931

Local government

701 (p)716 (p)718 (p)719

State government

428 (p)430 (p)434 (p)435

Federal government

712 (p)712 (p)711 (p)715

Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands)

With job gains (seasonally adjusted)

267 277 263  

With job losses (seasonally adjusted)

276 263 281  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

Data series Back
data
2019 2020 2021 2022

Labor productivity index, output per hour

128.560 140.118 148.639 148.111

Percent change from previous year

5.6 9.0 6.1 -0.4

Labor index, total labor hours

100.065 95.266 98.454 97.516

Percent change from previous year

-2.6 -4.8 3.3 -1.0

Output index

128.644 133.486 146.341 144.431

Percent change from previous year

2.8 3.8 9.6 -1.3

Unit labor costs index

97.820 97.343 100.043 105.034

Percent change from previous year

-0.2 -0.5 2.8 5.0

(Source: Productivity and Costs)

 

Data extracted on: March 15, 2024