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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 Back
data
Aug.
2024
Sep.
2024
Oct.
2024
Nov.
2024

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

2,502.7 2,505.8 (p)2,511.5 (p)2,515.2

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

2.6% 0.9% 1.6% 2.5%

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

Job openings

115 108 (p)146  

Hires

61 64 (p)77  

Separations

82 68 (p)73  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

3.5% 5.2% 3.6% 3.0%

Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

4.3% 6.5% 4.5% 3.8%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2023

Counter and rental clerks

184,820

Property, real estate, and community association managers

230,410

Real estate brokers

46,370

Real estate sales agents

162,190

(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, 2023
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Counter and rental clerks

$18.03 $19.31 $37,510 $40,160

Property, real estate, and community association managers

$29.55 $35.27 $61,460 $73,370

Real estate brokers

$30.32 $41.66 $63,060 $86,660

Real estate sales agents

$24.36 $31.08 $50,670 $64,650

(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

Retirement benefit plans

73 43

Defined benefit plans

   

Defined contribution plans

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

Health care

77

Paid vacation

90

Paid sick leave

91

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series Back
data
4th quarter
2023
1st quarter
2024
2nd quarter
2024
3rd quarter
2024

Private industry

12-month percent change

Total compensation

3.3% 2.9% 2.8% 3.1%

Wages and salaries

3.8% 3.3% 3.0% 3.3%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

-0.3% 1.0% 1.0% 1.4%

Wages and salaries

-0.3% 1.0% 0.9% 1.7%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series Private industry
Compensation component
($ per hour worked)
Percent of total compensation
Back
data
2nd quarter 2024 Back
data
2nd quarter 2024

Total compensation

37.41 100.0

Wages and salaries

26.87 71.8

Total benefits

10.54 28.2

Insurance

3.10 8.3

Retirement

0.65 1.7

Paid leave

2.73 7.3

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
Median weekly earnings
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Full-time workers

$1,001 $1,000 $1,088 $1,150

Members of unions

$1,081 $1,027 $1,160 $1,226

Represented by unions

$1,105 $995 $1,228 $1,151

Nonunion

$999 $1,001 $1,082 $1,150

(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 2019 2020 2021 2022

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

90 75 81 84

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series 2023

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 Back
data
3rd quarter
2023
4th quarter
2023
1st quarter
2024
2nd quarter
2024

Number of establishments

Private industry

490,083 494,448 (p)496,293 (p)499,071

Local government

1,710 1,718 (p)1,709 (p)1,713

State government

33 34 (p)36 (p)37

Federal government

7 7 (p)8 (p)8

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 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)

-0.9 3.9 2.1 1.0

Output

-1.1 12.9 2.3 3.8

Combined inputs

-0.2 8.7 0.2 2.7

Capital input

2.5 0.4 0.8 0.5

Labor input

-5.6 5.7 5.7 1.3

Labor productivity, output per hour

6.0 6.8 -3.5 2.9

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: December 12, 2024