Puerto Rico’s Retail To Sell $17 Billion in Goods.

Puerto Rico’s retail establishments sold $17.1 billion worth of goods
and employed 154,000 people at 14,582 locations in 1997, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau reported.

Food stores led all retailers with $3.6 billion in sales, one-fifth (21 percent) of the island’s total retail sales.

Puerto Rico’s 2,809 wholesale establishments reported sales of $12.6 billion in 1997; and service establishments, providing business, personal, amusement or other selected services, recorded receipts of $5.8 billion at 8,048 locations.

Other highlights of the report, 1997 Economic Census of Outlying Areas:

Puerto Rico — Geographic Areas Statistics: Retail Trade, Wholesale Trade, and Service Industries:

– In 1997, Puerto Rico’s retail sector reported an annual payroll of $1.6 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 1992; service establishments’ annual payroll was $1.5 billion, up from $893.6 million in 1992; and the wholesale sector’s payroll was $850.9 million,an increase of $177.7 million over the 1992 payroll of $673.2 million.

– Wholesale trade establishments employed 40,000 people. Groceries and related products were the largest wholesalers with $2.8 billion in sales followed by wholesalers of drugs, drug proprietaries and druggists’ sundries with $1.5 billion in sales.

– The service industries sector employed a total of 111,000 people at 8,048 locations. Business services was the leading service industry, with $2.3 billion in receipts, followed by engineering, research, and management services, with $805.4 million in receipts.

The 1997 Economic Census of Outlying Areas, which covered Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, was conducted by mail. Data were collected only for businesses that employed at least one person.