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Bakery Business Employment Statistics: Jobs, Wages and Outlook

U.S. baker employment, bakery-industry staffing, production workers, wages, workforce gaps and projected openings.

November 11, 2026 7 min read blackboxcake.com Editorial Team

Contents

Bakery business employment statistics: U.S. baker jobs and industry distribution

Bakers held about 262,400 jobs in the United States in 2025. This is an occupational count: it describes people working as bakers across different kinds of employers, not the number of employees in bakery businesses alone. The distinction matters because bakers also work in grocery stores, restaurants and other settings. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

The largest-employer distribution shows how that occupation is spread across workplaces. Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing accounted for 30% of baker jobs, while grocery and specialty food retailers accounted for 23%. Self-employed workers represented 10%. These percentages describe the distribution of baker jobs in 2025; they are not shares of all workers employed by those industries. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Employer categoryShare of baker jobs
Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing30%
Grocery and specialty food retailers23%
Self-employed workers10%

The figures show that baker employment reaches beyond production plants and retail bakery counters. The 30% category is the largest of these listed shares, but it still represents less than the full occupation. The grocery and specialty food retail share is also substantial, and self-employment forms another distinct part of the employment picture. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Bakery business employment statistics: Bakery-industry employment by workplace

Census Bureau Annual Integrated Economic Survey series count employees within specified industries. In 2024, retail bakeries employed 88,767 people, while bread and bakery product manufacturing employed 237,692. The workplace categories have different scopes: a retail bakery series is not interchangeable with an occupation count of bakers working across industries. (Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Retail Bakeries: Employees; Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Bread and Bakery Product Manufacturing: Employees)

The retail bakery employee series records 89,967 in 2023 and 77,170 in 2022, alongside 88,767 in 2024. Bread and bakery product manufacturing recorded 239,486 employees in 2023 and 237,692 in 2024. These are annual, not seasonally adjusted counts. They describe separate industry series, so adding them or comparing them as if the categories were mutually exclusive would go beyond the supplied information. (Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Retail Bakeries: Employees; Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Bread and Bakery Product Manufacturing: Employees)

Industry employee series202220232024
Retail bakeries77,17089,96788,767
Bread and bakery product manufacturing—239,486237,692
Commercial bakeries——124,664
Frozen cakes, pies, and other pastries manufacturing——24,261

Commercial bakeries employed 124,664 people in 2024. Frozen cakes, pies, and other pastries manufacturing employed 24,261. These series make the range of workplace categories visible, from storefront retail operations to specialized manufacturing. The blank cells indicate years not included in the checked observations here; they do not mean zero employees. (Census Bureau AIES via ALFRED, Commercial Bakeries: Employees; Census Bureau AIES via ALFRED, Frozen Cakes, Pies, and Other Pastries Manufacturing: Employees)

Bakery business employment statistics: Production workers in bakery industries

Production-worker counts provide a narrower view than total employee counts. In retail bakeries, the annual count was 52,502 in 2022, 63,147 in 2023 and 62,821 in 2024. The latest two observations are close to one another in the reported series, while the 2022 observation is lower. The data establish the counts for each year; they do not identify reasons for the differences. (Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Retail Bakeries: Production Workers)

Commercial bakeries reported 95,144 production workers in 2023 and 90,130 in 2024. Frozen cakes, pies, and other pastries manufacturing reported 19,700 in 2023 and 18,341 in 2024. As with employee totals, these are separate industry series, with annual counts in Number units and no seasonal adjustment. (Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Commercial Bakeries: Production Workers; Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Frozen Cakes, Pies, and Other Pastries Manufacturing: Production Workers)

Production-worker series202220232024
Retail bakeries52,50263,14762,821
Commercial bakeries—95,14490,130
Frozen cakes, pies, and other pastries manufacturing—19,70018,341

A production-worker series should not be treated as a synonym for total employment. It is one defined workforce measure for each industry, and its population differs from the BLS baker occupation count. The series are useful for describing staffing in production roles within these industries, while the broader employee counts above cover each industry’s employees. (Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Retail Bakeries: Production Workers; Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Commercial Bakeries: Production Workers; Census Bureau AIES via FRED, Frozen Cakes, Pies, and Other Pastries Manufacturing: Production Workers)

Bakery business employment statistics: Baker wages and pay by industry

The median annual wage for U.S. bakers was $37,160 in May 2025. The wage distribution also indicates that the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $28,120 annually, while the highest-paid 10% earned more than $49,020. These thresholds describe the occupation’s wage distribution; they are not minimum and maximum salaries. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Pay varied by selected industry. In May 2025, the median annual wage for bakers in general merchandise retail was $41,140. For bakers in full-service restaurants, the median was $37,640. Each is an industry-specific median for bakers, rather than an average wage for every worker employed in that retail or restaurant industry. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Baker wage measureMedian or thresholdPeriod
All bakers: median annual wage$37,160May 2025
Lowest-paid 10%: annual earnings below$28,120May 2025
Highest-paid 10%: annual earnings above$49,020May 2025
General merchandise retail: median annual wage$41,140May 2025
Full-service restaurants: median annual wage$37,640May 2025

The occupation-wide median sits between the two industry medians shown here. The figures support a comparison of these reported medians, but they do not explain why wages differ or describe every bakery employer’s pay practices. The BLS wage figures are specific to bakers and the stated May 2025 period. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Bakery business employment statistics: Commercial baking workforce gaps

The American Society of Baking’s 2025 workforce study drew on interviews, case studies and a survey of 90 industry executives. The respondents represented 73% of the U.S. commercial baking sector, according to the study description. Its scope is commercial baking and the organizations represented by study participants; its findings should not be read as a survey of every retail bakery business. (American Society of Baking, Workforce Gap Study)

Among the reported findings, 78% of baking companies said they had shortages in engineering and maintenance positions, including both hourly and salaried roles. The study also reported that skilled positions in baking grew by 60% over the five years preceding the study. It described a 58% increase in automation and robotics use over that same five-year period. (American Society of Baking, Workforce Gap Study)

Taken together, these findings describe a sector where companies reported staffing constraints in particular technical areas alongside growth in skilled positions and greater use of automation and robotics. The study reports these patterns, but the checked findings do not establish that one caused another. They offer a commercial-sector perspective that complements the broader occupation and industry employment series. (American Society of Baking, Workforce Gap Study)

Bakery business employment statistics: Baker employment outlook and openings

BLS projects baker employment to reach 276,900 in 2035, from 262,400 in 2025. The projection table reports a 6% increase and a numeric change of 14,500 jobs for 2025–35. The employment values are rounded to the nearest 100, so the stated projection levels and the separately reported change should be read as published estimates. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

The annual openings measure adds context to the employment projection. About 36,500 openings for bakers are projected each year on average over the decade. Openings are a distinct measure from net employment growth: the annual average describes projected opportunities over the period, while the 14,500 figure is the projected change in the number of baker jobs between 2025 and 2035. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

These outlook figures apply to the baker occupation across industries. They should not be interpreted as forecasts for the employee count of retail bakeries, commercial bakeries or any individual business. The industry employment series and the occupational projection answer different questions: one reports employees or production workers within defined industries, and the other projects jobs in an occupation. (BLS, Bakers: Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Sources

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