While Brick-and-Mortar Stores Closed, New Electronic Shopping Firms Created Jobs
July 11, 2025
The retail industry supports over a quarter of U.S. jobs, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, 18% of retail salespeople in 2023 were employed by firms that sold clothing, accessories, shoes and jewelry.
How has this industry been faring?
The 2022 Economic Census shows that the number of U.S. Clothing and Clothing Accessories retail firms decreased from 56,731 in 2017 to 52,909 in 2022 and the number of establishments from 143,534 to 121,610.
The Census Bureau’s BDS Explorer shows that among electronic shopping and mail-order firms, those less than a year old were the largest net job creators in 2022. This differed from before the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when firms at least 11 years old were the primary net job drivers.
An establishment refers to a single physical location and a firm consists of one or more establishments.
The retail clothing industry also saw a decline in employees from 1.8 million in 2017 to 1.5 million in 2022. Despite this drop, annual payroll rose from $32.1 billion to $35.0 billion over the same period.
Most of the decline in the Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores sector was among firms with one to 19 employees.
Dramatic Rise in Nonstore Retailers
While brick-and-mortar stores were disappearing, however, the number of U.S. electronic shopping and mail-order firms was on the rise, increasing 33 % from 33,241 in 2017 to 44,322 in 2022, according to the Census Bureau’s Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS).
There was a notable rise in the number of Nonstore Retailers establishments from 72,316 in 2021 to 77,128 in 2022. This sector includes any retail sales conducted outside a store, from kiosks and catalogs to online shopping. Jobs created by these new establishments peaked in 2020 by 117,379 new employees.
The Census Bureau’s BDS Explorer shows that among electronic shopping and mail-order firms, those less than a year old were the largest net job creators in 2022.
This differed from before the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when firms at least 11 years old were the primary net job drivers.
Job Flow
When people leave jobs, they may switch to a different industry.
According to the Job-to-Job Explorer data tool (which uses the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics statistics) about 13.7 million people worked in retail in the second quarter of 2023.
Of those retail workers, approximately 306,000 found new retail positions and thousands of others jumped to different industries – 140,000 moved to the Accommodations and Food Services sector; 86,000 to the health care and social assistance sector; 83,000 to the administrative and services sector; and 18,000 shifted to educational services.
