Health and Personal Care Stores: NAICS 446

About the Health and Personal Care Stores subsector

The health and personal care stores subsector is part of the retail trade sector.

Industries in the Health and Personal Care Stores subsector retail health and personal care merchandise from fixed point-of-sale locations. Establishments in this subsector are characterized principally by the products they retail, and some health and personal care stores may have specialized staff trained in dealing with the products. Staff may include pharmacists, opticians, and other professionals engaged in retailing, advising customers, and/or fitting the product sold to the customer's needs.

North American Industry Classification System

The health and personal care stores subsector consists of a single industry group, Health and Personal Care Stores: NAICS 4461.

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in health and personal care stores. These data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, mass layoffs, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment and Layoffs

Data series Back
data
Jun.
2008
Jul.
2008
Aug.
2008
Sep.
2008

Employment (in thousands)

 

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

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990.4 990.0 (P) 985.4 (P) 986.2

Employment, nonsupervisory workers

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804.5 799.3 (P) 793.9  

Layoffs

 

Mass layoff events

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(1) - 6 7  

Initial claimants for unemployment benefits

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(1) - 446 566  

Footnotes
(1) Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards.
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Mass Layoff Statistics)

Extended Mass Layoffs

Data series Back
data
3rd quarter
2007
4th quarter
2007
1st quarter
2008
2nd quarter
2008

Extended mass layoff events

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(1) - 4 (P) 4 (P) (1) -

Separations

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(1) - 351 (P) 454 (P) (1) -

Initial claimants

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(1) - 366 (P) 633 (P) (1) -

Footnotes
(1) Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards.
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Mass Layoff Statistics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2007

Cashiers

233,630

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

62,950

Pharmacists

115,110

Pharmacy aides

35,000

Pharmacy technicians

168,020

Retail salespersons

126,340

(Source: Occupational Employment Statistics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for health and personal care stores.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours for production or nonsupervisory employees are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in health and personal care stores.

Earnings and Hours of Production Workers

Data series Back
data
May
2008
Jun.
2008
Jul.
2008
Aug.
2008

Average hourly earnings

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$16.22 $16.18 $16.31 (P) $16.52

Average weekly hours

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29.5 30.3 30.1 (P) 30.3

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2007
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Cashiers

$8.43 $9.08 $17,540 $18,880

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

$17.23 $18.60 $35,840 $38,690

Pharmacists

$48.32 $48.16 $100,510 $100,170

Pharmacy aides

$9.12 $9.68 $18,980 $20,140

Pharmacy technicians

$12.07 $12.57 $25,100 $26,150

Retail salespersons

$9.56 $11.37 $19,880 $23,650

(Source: Occupational Employment Statistics)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in health and personal care stores. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

Data series 2004 2005 2006 2007

Fatalities

 

Number of fatalities

17   5 (P) 8

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

 

Total recordable cases

2.3 2.4 2.2  

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

1.1 1.2 1.0  

Cases involving days away from work

0.7 0.8 0.6  

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

0.4 0.4 0.4  

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.

Data series Back
data
May
2008
Jun.
2008
Jul.
2008
Aug.
2008

Producer price index

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(P) 127.9 (P) 128.0 (P) 135.4 (P) 133.1

Percent change from previous month

 

(P) 0.6% (P) 0.1% (P) 5.8% (P) -1.7%

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in health and personal care stores. Also included in this section is information on productivity, presented as the rate of change in output per hour of workers in the industry.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2007
2nd quarter
2007
3rd quarter
2007
4th quarter
2007

Number of establishments

 

Private industry

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(P) 83,588 (P) 83,949 (P) 84,400 (P) 84,597

Local government

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(P) 9 (P) 8 (P) 8 (P) 9

Federal government

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(P) 2 (P) 2 (P) 2 (P) 2

Footnotes
(P) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

Data series Back
data
2004 2005 2006 2007

Labor productivity index, output per hour

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134.280 133.418 139.316 138.967

Percent change from previous year

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3.7 -0.6 4.4 -0.3

Labor index, total labor hours

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107.111 110.665 110.451 115.305

Percent change from previous year

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-2.4 3.3 -0.2 4.4

Output index

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143.829 147.646 153.876 160.236

Percent change from previous year

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1.2 2.7 4.2 4.1

Unit labor costs index

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100.216 102.350 102.908 106.357

Percent change from previous year

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2.8 2.1 0.5 3.4

(Source: Productivity and Costs)

Other BLS Resources

Career Guide to Industries

To learn about careers from an industry perspective, see the Career Guide to Industries.

 

Data extracted on: October 08, 2008