Financial Activities

About the Financial Activities supersector

The financial activities supersector is part of the service-providing industries supersector group.

The financial activities supersector consists of these sectors:

• Finance and Insurance: NAICS 52
• Real Estate and Rental and Leasing: NAICS 53

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in financial activities. 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, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Data series	Back data	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		9,220	9,235	(p)9,241	(p)9,255
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)		6,965	6,985	(p)6,988	(p)6,989
Unemployment
Unemployment rate		2.0%	2.0%	2.8%	2.9%
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings		573	409	(p)392
Hires		219	183	(p)204
Separations		218	154	(p)203
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series	Back data	2021	2022	2023	2024
Union membership and representation
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)		2.3%	1.8%	1.7%	1.3%
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)		3.1%	2.5%	2.4%	1.8%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

Data series	Back data	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)
Gross job gains		399	363	396	392
Gross job losses		425	383	387	402

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates in financial activities, see the Employment and projected employment by major industry sector table.

(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. This section also contains information on recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

Data series	Back data	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$46.58	$46.73	(p)$46.98	(p)$47.20
Average weekly hours		37.6	37.7	(p)37.7	(p)37.6
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series	Back data	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Average hourly earnings		$36.50	$36.67	(p)$36.83	(p)$36.98
Average weekly hours		37.2	37.3	(p)37.3	(p)37.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment 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	2024	Back data	2024
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		89		76
Defined benefit plans		31		16
Defined contribution plans		89		74

(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		12		19

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series	Back data	2024
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits
Health care		90
Paid vacation		96
Paid sick leave		96

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series	Back data	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024	4th quarter 2024	1st quarter 2025
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation		3.1%	2.5%	3.4%	4.4%
Wages and salaries		2.9%	2.1%	3.0%	3.7%
3-month percent change
Total compensation		1.5%	0.2%	0.8%	1.8%
Wages and salaries		1.6%	0.2%	0.9%	1.0%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series	Private industry
	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)		Percent of total compensation
	Back data	4th quarter 2024	Back data	4th quarter 2024
Total compensation		62.71		100.0
Wages and salaries		41.28		65.8
Total benefits		21.43		34.2
Insurance		5.51		8.8
Retirement		2.33		3.7
Paid leave		5.74		9.1

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
		2021	2022	2023	2024
Union membership and representation
Full-time workers		$1,233	$1,326	$1,385	$1,446
Members of unions		$1,017	$1,337	$1,154	$1,262
Represented by unions		$1,019	$1,271	$1,170	$1,266
Nonunion		$1,239	$1,327	$1,393	$1,451

(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 financial activities. 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				113
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	0.7
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	0.4
Cases involving days away from work	0.3
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.1
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in financial activities.

Establishments

Data series	Back data	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Number of establishments
Private industry		1,074,740	(p)1,078,172	(p)1,083,218	(p)1,089,559
Local government		1,920	(p)1,913	(p)1,913	(p)1,914
State government		144	(p)149	(p)151	(p)151
Federal government		818	(p)827	(p)831	(p)828
Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands)
With job gains (seasonally adjusted)		169	158	161	164
With job losses (seasonally adjusted)		166	166	172	164
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, 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 total factor productivity (TFP) compare growth in output to the growth in a combination of inputs that include labor, capital, energy, materials, and services. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked.

Data series	Back data	2020	2021	2022	2023
Total factor productivity (TFP)		-0.8	3.0	-0.7	-0.2
Output		0.0	7.4	1.9	3.3
Combined inputs		0.8	4.3	2.6	3.6
Capital input		3.6	1.8	1.7	1.1
Labor input		0.1	1.7	3.0	0.7
Labor productivity, output per hour		1.2	5.4	-0.6	2.8

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: May 16, 2025