An official website of the United States government
United States Department of Labor
United States Department of Labor
The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information,
make sure you're on a federal government site.
The site is secure.
The
https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any
information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Industries at a Glance
SHARE ON:
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing: NAICS 53
On This Page
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:
- Real Estate: NAICS 531
- Rental and Leasing Services: NAICS 532
- Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets (except Copyrighted Works): NAICS 533
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 | Back data |
Feb. 2025 |
Mar. 2025 |
Apr. 2025 |
May 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment (in thousands) |
|||||
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted) |
|
2,495.7 | 2,494.2 | (p)2,499.9 | (p)2,504.1 |
Unemployment |
|||||
|
|
2.4% | 4.6% | 3.0% | 1.6% | |
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
158 | 111 | (p)147 | ||
|
|
57 | 62 | (p)91 | ||
|
|
50 | 62 | (p)71 | ||
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(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) |
|
5.2% | 3.6% | 3.0% | 2.6% |
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
|
6.5% | 4.5% | 3.8% | 3.3% |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Employment by Occupation
| Data series | Employment, 2024 |
|---|---|
| 189,840 | |
| 239,020 | |
| 43,010 | |
| 154,000 |
(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, 2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Annual | |||
| Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
| $18.37 | $20.15 | $38,200 | $41,920 | |
| $30.61 | $37.11 | $63,680 | $77,180 | |
| $34.61 | $44.22 | $71,990 | $91,970 | |
| $25.02 | $32.39 | $52,050 | $67,380 | |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
Employee Benefits
This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).
| Data series | Access | Participation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Private industry |
||||
|
|
73 |
|
43 | |
|
|
|
|||
|
|
71 |
|
42 | |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | After 1 year of service | After 20 years of service | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans |
|
9 |
|
17 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | Back data |
2024 |
|---|---|---|
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits |
||
|
|
77 | |
|
|
90 | |
|
|
91 | |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Employer Compensation Costs
| Data series | Back data |
2nd quarter 2024 |
3rd quarter 2024 |
4th quarter 2024 |
1st quarter 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Private industry |
|||||
12-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
2.8% | 3.1% | 3.4% | 3.9% | |
|
|
3.0% | 3.3% | 3.7% | 3.9% | |
3-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
1.0% | 1.4% | -0.1% | 1.5% | |
|
|
0.9% | 1.7% | 0.0% | 1.2% | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
| Data series | Private industry | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation component ($ per hour worked) |
Percent of total compensation | |||
| Back data |
4th quarter 2024 | Back data |
4th quarter 2024 | |
|
|
39.95 |
|
100.0 | |
|
|
28.34 |
|
70.9 | |
|
|
11.61 |
|
29.1 | |
|
|
3.59 |
|
9.0 | |
|
|
0.83 |
|
2.1 | |
|
|
2.90 |
|
7.2 | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Union Membership and Representation
| Data series | Back data |
Median weekly earnings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
Union membership and representation |
|||||
|
|
$1,000 | $1,088 | $1,150 | $1,208 | |
|
|
$1,027 | $1,160 | $1,226 | $1,350 | |
|
|
$995 | $1,228 | $1,151 | $1,267 | |
|
|
$1,001 | $1,082 | $1,150 | $1,206 | |
(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 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fatalities |
||||
| 91 | ||||
|
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 |
|
| 2.0 | |
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer |
1.2 |
| 0.8 | |
| 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 | Back data |
1st quarter 2024 |
2nd quarter 2024 |
3rd quarter 2024 |
4th quarter 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of establishments |
|||||
|
|
(p)490,717 | (p)492,468 | (p)494,969 | (p)497,937 | |
|
|
(p)1,704 | (p)1,706 | (p)1,705 | (p)1,708 | |
|
|
(p)36 | (p)37 | (p)37 | (p)37 | |
|
|
(p)8 | (p)8 | (p)6 | (p)7 | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
-0.9 | 3.9 | 2.1 | 1.0 | |
|
|
-1.1 | 12.9 | 2.3 | 3.8 | |
|
|
-0.2 | 8.7 | 0.2 | 2.7 | |
|
|
2.5 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.5 | |
|
|
-5.6 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 1.0 | |
|
|
5.9 | 6.8 | -3.5 | 3.1 |
(Source: Productivity)
Data extracted on: June 12, 2025