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Despite the growth in online retail sales, the retail workforce continues to have a substantial presence in the U.S. labor force and the number of people employed in retail jobs has grown this decade.
In 2018, 9.8 million workers had jobs as cashiers, retail salespersons or first-line supervisors of retail salespersons, up from 9.6 million in 2010. Together, these occupations accounted for 6.3% of the total U.S. labor force.
Cashiers were among the lowest-paid members of the retail workforce.
Cashiers were among the lowest-paid members of the retail workforce.
Young, less educated women earning low wages characterize the typical retail worker in the United States. Minorities are overrepresented in retail work but non-Hispanic Whites still make up the majority (60%) of the retail workforce.
Using data from the American Community Survey, a new Census Bureau report profiles three sales and related occupations – retail salespersons, cashiers and first-line supervisors, collectively referred to as retail workers.
In 2018, there were 9.8 million people employed as retail workers in the United States. Retail salespeople and cashiers include about 3.3 million workers each, followed by first-line supervisors of retail sales workers with 3.1 million workers.
How retail workers compare to the total workforce:
In 2018, around 1.3 million retail workers were employed by grocery stores. The count of retail workers in general merchandise stores, including warehouse clubs and supercenters, was around 865,000. In addition, 535,000 worked in department stores.
Cashiers were among the lowest-paid members of the retail workforce.
In 2018, the median earnings for full-time, year-round cashiers were $22,109, compared with $35,301 for retail salespersons and $42,421 for first-line supervisors of retail salespersons.
In contrast, the median earnings for all full-time, year-round workers was $48,565 in 2018.
D. Augustus Anderson is a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.
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