Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers: NAICS 444

About the Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers subsector

The building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers subsector is part of the retail trade sector.

The building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers subsector consists of these industry groups:

• Building Material and Supplies Dealers: NAICS 4441
• Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Stores: NAICS 4442

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers. 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	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		1,390.9	1,389.9	(p)1,391.6	(p)1,394.3
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees		1,079.0	1,085.5	(p)1,120.9
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series	Employment, 2024
Cashiers	158,210
Industrial truck and tractor operators	6,690
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	113,520
Retail salespersons	477,640
Stock clerks and order fillers	105,880
Truck drivers, light or delivery services	19,460

(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 building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers.

(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 building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

Data series	Back data	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$22.97	$22.39	$23.07	(p)$22.98
Average weekly hours		29.7	29.4	29.4	(p)30.0
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series	Back data	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$24.95	$25.04	$24.89	(p)$24.73
Average weekly hours		36.8	36.1	36.5	(p)37.2
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series	Wages, 2024
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Cashiers	16.37	16.21	34,040	33,720
Industrial truck and tractor operators	19.33	20.01	40,210	41,630
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	18.17	18.81	37,790	39,120
Retail salespersons	17.42	18.47	36,230	38,430
Stock clerks and order fillers	17.34	17.64	36,080	36,690
Truck drivers, light or delivery services	21.00	20.88	43,680	43,420

(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 building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers. 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	2020	2021	2022	2023
Fatalities
Number of fatalities				25
There was a series break beginning with 2023 data due to NAICS 2022. Data for years prior to 2023 are available at www.bls.gov/iif.

Data series	2023
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	3.8
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.5
Cases involving days away from work	1.4
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	1.1
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	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Producer price index		(p)213.338	(p)216.266	(p)219.268	(p)214.381
Percent change from previous month		(p)0.5%	(p)1.4%	(p)1.4%	(p)-2.2%
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers. 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		73,062	(p)73,116	(p)73,140	(p)73,329
Local government		6	(p)6	(p)6	(p)6
Federal government		1	(p)1	(p)1	(p)1
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		1.5	-2.4	-1.8
Hours worked		1.1	-2.4	-2.2	-0.2
Output		2.7	-4.7	-3.9
Unit labor costs		5.1	4.2	4.9

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: May 20, 2025