United States · NAICS 492 · Annual, 2025
Couriers and Messengers in the United States
Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 492 in the United States, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.
In 2025, Couriers and Messengers (NAICS 492) employed about 1,123,100 people in the United States across roughly 22,384 establishments, with average annual pay of $57,020.
Employment in Couriers and Messengers in the United States grew 16.2% from 2020 to 2025. Employment reached its 2004–2025 peak in 2025, at about 1,123,100. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for the United States are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.
- 1,123,100Employment, 2025
- 22,384Establishments
- $57,020Avg. annual pay
- 0.7%Share of U.S. jobs
The 2025 figures above are a DTG estimate: Estimated · 1.00. † Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
Employment, 2004 to 2025
Annual average · all ownerships
Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 557,700; 2005 561,600; 2006 576,900; 2007 581,200; 2008 575,200; 2009 534,600; 2010 519,500; 2011 521,300; 2012 526,000; 2013 536,700; 2014 564,400; 2015 603,300; 2016 633,800; 2017 666,600; 2018 722,300; 2019 818,100; 2020 966,400; 2021 1,080,000; 2022 1,096,400; 2023 1,069,400; 2024 1,072,400; 2025 1,123,100.
Last ten years
Annual · 10 years
| Year | Employment | Estab. | Avg. annual pay | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,123,076 | 22,384 | $57,016 | 4.7% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2024 | 1,072,404 | 22,778 | $55,938 | 0.3% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2023 | 1,069,361 | 23,293 | $53,502 | 2.5% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2022 | 1,096,423 | 22,777 | $50,252 | 1.5% | pub. |
| 2021 | 1,080,001 | 21,363 | $51,117 | 11.8% | pub. |
| 2020 | 966,389 | 19,506 | $46,951 | 18.1% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2019 | 818,094 | 18,243 | $45,902 | 13.3% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2018 | 722,259 | 17,512 | $46,139 | 8.3% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2017 | 666,606 | 17,410 | $46,206 | 5.2% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2016 | 633,804 | 17,659 | $45,352 | 5.1% | est. · 1.00 |
† 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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Couriers and Messengers in the United States, quarterly, at full depth
This page shows annual figures for couriers and messengers in the United States. 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.