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Real Estate and Rental and Leasing: NAICS 53

About the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector

The real estate and rental and leasing sector is part of the financial activities supersector.

The Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in renting, leasing, or otherwise allowing the use of tangible or intangible assets, and establishments providing related services. The major portion of this sector comprises establishments that rent, lease, or otherwise allow the use of their own assets by others. The assets may be tangible, as is the case of real estate and equipment, or intangible, as is the case with patents and trademarks.

This sector also includes establishments primarily engaged in managing real estate for others, selling, renting and/or buying real estate for others, and appraising real estate. These activities are closely related to this sector's main activity, and it was felt that from a production basis they would best be included here. In addition, a substantial proportion of property management is self-performed by lessors.

The main components of this sector are the real estate lessors industries (including equity real estate investment trusts (REITs)); equipment lessors industries (including motor vehicles, computers, and consumer goods); and lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets (except copyrighted works).

North American Industry Classification System

The real estate and rental and leasing sector consists of these subsectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in real estate and rental and leasing. 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, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations


Data series	May 2023	Jun. 2023	Jul. 2023	Aug. 2023
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	2,419.2	2,419.8	(p)2,428.8	(p)2,429.3
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	1.5%	1.2%	2.7%	1.9%
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings	118	127	(p)166
Hires	73	77	(p)97
Separations	56	62	(p)78
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	2019	2020	2021	2022
Union membership and representation
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	4.0%	3.5%	5.2%	3.6%
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	4.7%	4.3%	6.5%	4.5%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Employment by Occupation


Data series	Employment, 2022
Counter and rental clerks	179,870
Property, real estate, and community association managers	209,040
Real estate brokers	48,160
Real estate sales agents	157,260

(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 real estate and rental and leasing.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings

Weekly earnings by union membership status are shown. Recent hourly and annual earnings for occupations commonly found in educational services. 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 by Occupation


Data series	Wages, 2022
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Counter and rental clerks	$17.14	$18.04	$35,650	$37,510
Property, real estate, and community association managers	$28.52	$33.26	$59,310	$69,180
Real estate brokers	$29.13	$43.76	$60,590	$91,020
Real estate sales agents	$23.04	$28.86	$47,930	$60,020

(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
Data series	Back data	2023	Back data	2023
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		68		52
Defined benefit plans		8		7
Defined contribution plans		68		51

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)


Data series	After 1 year of service		After 20 years of service
Data series	Back data	2023	Back data	2023
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans		10		18

(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		77
Paid vacation		89
Paid sick leave		89

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs


Data series	3rd quarter 2022	4th quarter 2022	1st quarter 2023	2nd quarter 2023
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation	6.3%	5.6%	4.8%	3.8%
Wages and salaries	6.7%	5.8%	5.0%	4.2%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	0.8%	0.5%	1.3%	1.1%
Wages and salaries	0.9%	0.6%	1.5%	1.2%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)


Data series	Private industry
	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)		Percent of total compensation
	Back data	2nd quarter 2023	Back data	2nd quarter 2023
Total compensation		36.26		100.0
Wages and salaries		25.87		71.4
Total benefits		10.38		28.6
Insurance		2.99		8.3
Retirement		0.73		2.0
Paid leave		2.79		7.7

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
Data series	Back data	2019	2020	2021	2022
Union membership and representation
Full-time workers		$948	$1,001	$1,000	$1,088
Members of unions		$941	$1,081	$1,027	$1,160
Represented by unions		$937	$1,105	$995	$1,228
Nonunion		$949	$999	$1,001	$1,082

(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 real estate and rental and leasing. 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	2018	2019	2020	2021
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	78	90	75	81
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.


Data series	2021
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	2.0
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	1.2
Cases involving days away from work	0.8
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.4
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 in real estate and rental and leasing.

Establishments


Data series	2nd quarter 2022	3rd quarter 2022	4th quarter 2022	1st quarter 2023
Number of establishments
Private industry	468,618	474,310	482,357	(p)482,761
Local government	1,721	1,716	1,714	(p)1,715
State government	27	27	31	(p)31
Federal government	7	7	7	(p)7
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Data extracted on: September 21, 2023

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing: NAICS 53

On This Page

About the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector

Workforce Statistics

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Union Membership and Representation

Employment by Occupation

Projections

Earnings

Earnings by Occupation

Employee Benefits

Employer Compensation Costs

Union Membership and Representation

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

Workplace Trends

Establishments