Massachusetts · NAICS 44-45 · Annual, 2025

Retail Trade in Massachusetts

Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 44-45 in Massachusetts, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.

In 2025, Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45) employed about 322,200 people in Massachusetts across roughly 21,718 establishments, with average annual pay of $47,720.

Employment in Retail Trade in Massachusetts declined 9.5% from 2004 to 2025. Average pay in the industry is 52.3% below the all-industries average in Massachusetts. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for Massachusetts are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.

  • 322,200Employment, 2025
  • 21,718Establishments
  • $47,720Avg. annual pay
  • 8.9%Share of Massachusetts jobs
  • 0.89Location quotient

Employment, 2004 to 2025

Annual average · all ownerships

Employment in Retail Trade in Massachusetts, 2004–2025Line chart of annual employment from 2004 to 2025, from 355,800 to 322,200.0100K200K300K400K20042010201520202025

Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 355,800; 2005 355,700; 2006 351,000; 2007 349,400; 2008 348,100; 2009 334,600; 2010 339,400; 2011 343,600; 2012 346,000; 2013 347,600; 2014 350,100; 2015 353,600; 2016 355,800; 2017 355,600; 2018 354,300; 2019 352,100; 2020 319,200; 2021 330,700; 2022 332,600; 2023 330,100; 2024 327,400; 2025 322,200.

Last ten years

Annual · 10 years

YearEmploymentEstab.Avg. annual payChangeSource
2025322,19521,718$47,719 1.6%pub.
2024327,43721,596$46,442 0.8%pub.
2023330,06722,039$45,934 0.8%pub.
2022332,55522,084$45,144 0.6%pub.
2021330,65422,136$44,265 3.6%pub.
2020319,17522,619$41,240 9.3%pub.
2019352,08423,159$36,943 0.6%pub.
2018354,28523,491$34,909 0.4%pub.
2017355,60823,822$33,489 0.1%pub.
2016355,77224,018$32,339 0.6%pub.

† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.

The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.

By subsector, 2025

3-digit NAICS · 9 shown

Where these numbers come from

Reading these figures

The figures on this page come from one named vintage, stated below, and are annual values for all ownerships combined. Where QCEW withheld a value, the marked figure is an estimate that DTG produced under the constraints of the published record; suppression is a property of QCEW, not of DTG, and a withheld value is marked rather than silently omitted. Two things DTG itself holds back, and says so where it does: an estimate that cannot be given a reliability score is not shown, and average pay is not shown where fewer than three jobs are reported. The row is marked withheld, with the reason in a note beneath the table. The mark is on every row that carries a value: the headline, the yearly history, the subsectors and the other states. An estimated value that rounds below one is shown as less than one, not as zero. Quarterly figures, county figures and projected years are in the app.

How this figure was built

Employment is the average of the three monthly counts in each quarter, averaged across the year, and establishments are averaged across the year the same way. Average annual pay is the year’s total wages divided by that average employment. Each of these is DTG’s value: QCEW’s published figure where QCEW disclosed it, and DTG’s estimate, marked, where it did not. How withheld values are estimated, and what the reliability score beside a figure means, are described on the industry data and disclosure and provenance pages.

Estimated by Data Tactical Group from BLS QCEW, with CES/SAE and projection inputs described in the methodology. Method: Disclosure, Industry.

Notes

Data Tactical Group is an independent company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any federal agency.

Retail Trade in Massachusetts, quarterly, at full depth

This page shows annual figures for retail trade in Massachusetts. A free account shows every detailed industry beneath it, quarterly, for every state, with projections to ten years. No card.

County figures, file export and the API are on paid plans.