Massachusetts · NAICS 455 · Annual, 2025
General Merchandise Retailers in Massachusetts
Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 455 in Massachusetts, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.
In 2025, General Merchandise Retailers (NAICS 455) employed about 49,200 people in Massachusetts across roughly 1,116 establishments, with average annual pay of $32,890.
Employment in General Merchandise Retailers in Massachusetts declined 8.8% from 2020 to 2025. The industry is less concentrated in Massachusetts than in the nation as a whole (location quotient 0.65). Average pay in the industry is 67.1% 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.
- 49,200Employment, 2025
- 1,116Establishments
- $32,890Avg. annual pay
- 1.4%Share of Massachusetts jobs
- 0.65Location quotient
Employment, 2004 to 2025
Annual average · all ownerships
Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 46,800; 2005 47,600; 2006 45,500; 2007 46,700; 2008 46,600; 2009 46,600; 2010 48,300; 2011 54,800; 2012 54,600; 2013 54,700; 2014 55,000; 2015 54,900; 2016 55,200; 2017 54,200; 2018 55,800; 2019 56,600; 2020 53,900; 2021 57,600; 2022 50,400; 2023 50,700; 2024 50,700; 2025 49,200.
Last ten years
Annual · 10 years
| Year | Employment | Estab. | Avg. annual pay | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49,197 | 1,116 | $32,891 | 2.9% | pub. |
| 2024 | 50,664 | 1,099 | $31,413 | 0.0% | pub. |
| 2023 | 50,671 | 1,068 | $30,607 | 0.6% | pub. |
| 2022 | 50,384 | 1,017 | $30,022 | 12.5% | pub. |
| 2021 | 57,578 | 1,510 | $37,617 | 6.7% | pub. |
| 2020 | 53,940 | 1,453 | $35,175 | 4.7% | pub. |
| 2019 | 56,611 | 1,438 | $31,991 | 1.5% | pub. |
| 2018 | 55,789 | 1,397 | $29,669 | 2.9% | pub. |
| 2017 | 54,214 | 1,360 | $27,943 | 1.7% | pub. |
| 2016 | 55,164 | 1,378 | $26,341 | 0.5% | pub. |
† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.
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.
Notes
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General Merchandise Retailers in Massachusetts, quarterly, at full depth
This page shows annual figures for general merchandise retailers 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.