Employment
Grocery stores ranked among the largest industries in 2004, providing 2.4 million wage-and-salary jobs. About 31 percent of all grocery store employees worked part time, and the average workweek of nonsupervisory workers was 30.8 hours. Some self-employed workers also worked in grocery stores, mostly in smaller establishments.
In 2004, there were 85,000 grocery stores throughout the Nation. Most grocery stores are small; 80 percent employ fewer than 50 workers. Most jobs, however, are found in the largest stores. Seventy-four percent of workers were employed in grocery stores with more than 50 workers (chart 1).
Many grocery store workers are young: people who are 16 to 24 years old hold 32 percent of the jobs. This reflects the large number of jobs in this industry open to young workers who have little or no work experience.