General Merchandise Stores: NAICS 452

About the General Merchandise Stores subsector

The general merchandise stores subsector is part of the retail trade sector.

The general merchandise stores subsector consists of these industry groups:

• Department Stores: NAICS 4521
• Other General Merchandise Stores: NAICS 4529

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in general merchandise 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)		3,272.6	3,295.8	(p)3,306.6	(p)3,301.8
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees		3,273.9	3,120.6	(p)3,084.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series	Employment, 2024
Cashiers	554,230
Customer service representatives	171,120
First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers	197,550
Retail salespersons	701,930
Stock clerks and order fillers	909,510

(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 general merchandise 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 general merchandise stores.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

Data series	Back data	Nov. 2024	Dec. 2024	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$21.73	$21.30	$22.50	(p)$22.63
Average weekly hours		26.8	29.4	24.6	(p)26.3
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		$17.83	$17.77	$17.78	(p)$17.94
Average weekly hours		30.6	31.6	29.1	(p)29.6
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series	Wages, 2024
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Cashiers	14.47	15.03	30,100	31,260
Customer service representatives	17.51	18.35	36,410	38,180
First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers	22.09	22.83	45,950	47,480
Retail salespersons	16.33	16.17	33,970	33,630
Stock clerks and order fillers	17.43	17.87	36,260	37,170

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Work-related Injuries and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in general merchandise 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. Information on fatal work-related injuries can be found at www.bls.gov/iif.

Data series	2023
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	4.4
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.5
Cases involving days away from work	1.3
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)158.414	(p)162.271	(p)159.544	(p)156.914
Percent change from previous month		(p)1.3%	(p)2.4%	(p)-1.7%	(p)-1.6%
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in general merchandise 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	1st quarter 2021	2nd quarter 2021	3rd quarter 2021	4th quarter 2021
Number of establishments
Private industry		65,790	66,012	66,490	67,001
Local government		3	3	3	3
Federal government		279	279	277	275

(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		3.5	5.9	-5.8
Hours worked		2.8	-5.2	4.0	-0.9
Output		6.4	0.4	-2.0
Unit labor costs		3.1	0.8	5.5

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: April 29, 2025