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11/27/2023 9:00:00 AM
Tim O'Neill
With winter fast approaching, and the holiday season along with it, so too comes seasonal hiring. Much of this hiring will come within the Metro Area's third largest-employing industry sector: Retail Trade. As of the second quarter of 2023, this industry was comprised of nearly 8,200 establishments supplying over 154,400 jobs in the region. And these jobs are dispersed among a variety of areas, from department stores and supercenters, to grocery and liquor stores, to furniture and electronics retailers, to clothing stores, jewelry retailers, sporting goods stores and more.
With such a variety of subsectors, the Retail Trade industry has a wide variety of entry points and career pathways. The occupations with the highest concentrations of employment in this sector include Retail Salespersons; Cashiers; Stockers & Order Fillers; First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers; Customer Service Representatives; Automotive Service Technicians & Mechanics; Pharmacy Technicians; Laborers & Freight, Stock & Material Movers; Food Preparation Workers; Fast Food & Counter Workers; Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers; and Parts Salespersons.
Many of these Retail Trade occupations are large and employ thousands of workers. Retail Salespersons, for example, is the Metro Area's second largest-employing occupation, out of more than 800 specific occupations. Customer Service Representatives is the region's third largest-employing occupation. Laborers & Freight, Stock & Material Movers; Fast Food & Counter Workers; and Cashiers are also in the region's top ten largest-employing occupations. With such high employment in the Metro Area, many of these occupations have equally large numbers of job vacancies. In fact, the top ten occupations with the highest concentration of jobs in Retail Trade account for one-sixth of the Metro Area's total job vacancies. These are clearly jobs that are in high demand (Table 1).
| Table 1. Metro Area Occupations with High Employment Concentration in Retail Trade | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occupation | Number of Jobs | Hourly Wage Percentiles | 2022 Job Vacancies | 2020 – 2030
Employment Outlook |
|||
| 25th | Median | 75th | Growth Rate | Projected Openings | |||
| Total, All Occupations | 1,718,290 | $18.46 | $25.67 | $40.42 | 98,330 | +6.2% | 886,608 |
| Retail Salespersons | 40,140 | $14.52 | $16.23 | $18.21 | 3,205 | -3.0% | 25,241 |
| Cashiers | 28,180 | $13.86 | $14.70 | $16.72 | 2,263 | -9.4% | 26,296 |
| Stockers & Order Fillers | 24,130 | $15.68 | $17.74 | $19.77 | 1,316 | +2.7% | 15,865 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 9,640 | $20.23 | $23.85 | $29.53 | 2,152 | -6.2% | 3,750 |
| Customer Service Representatives | 39,680 | $18.36 | $22.90 | $26.73 | 1,686 | -3.9% | 19,515 |
| Automotive Service Technicians & Mechanics | 6,160 | $19.01 | $25.21 | $31.45 | 414 | -5.7% | 1,978 |
| Pharmacy Technicians | 4,520 | $18.96 | $22.50 | $24.23 | 1,060 | +1.2% | 1,406 |
| Laborers & Freight, Stock & Material Movers | 32,790 | $18.60 | $21.49 | $23.41 | 735 | +7.4% | 13,224 |
| Food Preparation Workers | 9,310 | $14.78 | $16.59 | $18.98 | 1,077 | -2.8% | 3,980 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 32,040 | $14.43 | $15.20 | $16.80 | 2,481 | +12.4% | 47,038 |
| Light Truck Drivers | 12,160 | $21.21 | $22.83 | $27.26 | 399 | +7.2% | 5,056 |
| Parts Salespersons | 2,190 | $14.94 | $19.21 | $24.89 | 29 | +2.9% | 814 |
| Source: DEED Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics, Occupational Staffing Patterns, Job Vacancy Survey, Employment Outlook | |||||||
With the nature of being such large occupations, DEED's Employment Outlook data also reveals that many retail occupations will have a very large number of projected openings through 2030. As Table 1 reveals, this is mainly due to replacement openings. For example, while total employment for Retail Salespersons is anticipated to decline by 3.0% between 2020 and 2030 in the Metro Area, it is still projected to have over 25,200 projected openings. This is solely due to replacement openings – existing jobs that become available because the current worker retires or switches careers.
Contact Tim O'Neill, Labor Market Analyst, at timothy.oneill@state.mn.us.
