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General Merchandise Stores: NAICS 452

About the General Merchandise Stores subsector

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

Industries in the General Merchandise Stores subsector retail new general merchandise from fixed point-of-sale locations. Establishments in this subsector are unique in that they have the equipment and staff capable of retailing a large variety of goods from a single location. This includes a variety of display equipment and staff trained to provide information on many lines of products.

North American Industry Classification System

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
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

3,193.0 3,209.1 (p)3,226.7 (p)3,243.9

Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees

3,198.7 3,234.4 (p)3,063.6  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2022

Cashiers

587,360

Customer service representatives

213,490

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

200,360

Retail salespersons

643,230

Stock clerks and order fillers

859,250

(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
Oct.
2023
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$21.11 $20.43 $20.23 (p)$21.66

Average weekly hours

26.5 27.3 28.4 (p)24.5

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series Back
data
Oct.
2023
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$17.30 $17.38 $17.19 (p)$17.27

Average weekly hours

30.3 30.9 31.0 (p)29.0

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Cashiers

13.08 13.66 27,200 28,420

Customer service representatives

15.96 16.30 33,210 33,900

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

21.01 22.04 43,700 45,840

Retail salespersons

14.79 15.37 30,770 31,970

Stock clerks and order fillers

15.31 16.04 31,850 33,370

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

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 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.

Data series 2019 2020 2021 2022

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

21 14 19 32

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

Data series 2022

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

Total recordable cases

5.6

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

3.8

Cases involving days away from work

2.5

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

1.3

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
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Producer price index

(p)149.516 (p)150.659 (p)153.324 (p)155.666

Percent change from previous month

  (p)-2.4% (p)0.8% (p)1.8% (p)1.5%

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

Data series Back
data
2019 2020 2021 2022

Labor productivity index, output per hour

131.947 136.525 141.448 148.876

Percent change from previous year

10.0 3.5 3.6 5.3

Labor index, total labor hours

87.716 86.654 89.049 83.886

Percent change from previous year

-7.6 -1.2 2.8 -5.8

Output index

115.738 118.304 125.958 124.885

Percent change from previous year

1.6 2.2 6.5 -0.9

Unit labor costs index

100.002 101.881 105.179 107.610

Percent change from previous year

-1.2 1.9 3.2 2.3

(Source: Productivity and Costs)

 

Data extracted on: March 22, 2024