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Specialty Food Retail Employment Statistics: U.S. Jobs and Trends

Explore U.S. specialty food retail payroll employment, segment counts, worker measures, women’s employment, and the annual index.

November 12, 2026 6 min read blackboxcake.com Editorial Team

Contents

Specialty food retail employment statistics: U.S. payroll employment

U.S. specialty food retailers recorded 236.8 thousand nonfarm payroll employees in May 2026. The not seasonally adjusted series then lists 237.3 thousand in June, 242.8 thousand in July, 244.4 thousand in August, and 246.0 thousand in September. These are monthly employment levels for the NAICS 4452 industry, measured in thousands of employees. BLS Table B-1b: nonfarm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted

Month in 2026Nonfarm payroll employees (thousands)
May236.8
June237.3
July242.8
August244.4
September246.0

Across the months shown, the reported level is higher in September than in May. The series does not adjust for seasonal patterns, so these month-to-month observations should be read as reported rather than seasonally adjusted. The values are also industry payroll employment counts: they do not describe sales, the number of businesses, or the number of distinct people who may hold jobs at multiple establishments. BLS Table B-1b

The latest point in this five-month sequence is 246.0 thousand in September 2026. It is a historical observation for that month, not a current-year estimate or a forecast. Keeping the date attached to each figure matters because employment levels are tied to a particular reference month, and the source table is explicitly not seasonally adjusted. BLS Table B-1b

Specialty food retail employment statistics by specialty food segment

The BLS table provides selected specialty food retail categories as well as the NAICS 4452 total. Comparing May and September 2026 shows the reported payroll levels for fruit and vegetable retailers, meat, fish, and seafood retailers, and other specialty food retailers. The unit remains thousands of nonfarm payroll employees, and all values below are not seasonally adjusted. BLS Table B-1b: selected specialty food retailer industries

Specialty food segmentMay 2026 (thousands)September 2026 (thousands)
Fruit and vegetable retailers38.845.9
Meat, fish, and seafood retailers75.874.4
Other specialty food retailers122.2125.7

The table’s “other specialty food retailers” category is the largest of these three selected rows in both months: it reports 122.2 thousand in May and 125.7 thousand in September. Meat, fish, and seafood retailers report 75.8 thousand and 74.4 thousand, respectively. Fruit and vegetable retailers report 38.8 thousand in May and 45.9 thousand in September. Those comparisons describe only these two months and these reported categories; they do not establish why a category’s employment level changed. BLS Table B-1b

The table also subdivides some categories. Baked goods, confectionery, and nut retailers had 42.7 thousand nonfarm payroll employees in May 2026 and 41.9 thousand in September. Within the broader “other specialty food retailers” line, “all other specialty food retailers” recorded 79.5 thousand in May and 83.8 thousand in September. These are separate published rows, so they should be identified by their own labels rather than substituted for the parent category. BLS Table B-1b

Together, these rows illustrate the detail available within the specialty food retail classification. They are employment levels, not percentages of the industry or estimates of each segment’s share. The source uses thousands, so a value such as 45.9 means 45.9 thousand payroll employees, with the original unit retained. BLS Table B-1b

Specialty food retail employment statistics for production and nonsupervisory workers

A separate BLS measure covers production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls, reported in thousands and seasonally adjusted. For specialty food retailers, this series lists 194.9 thousand in May 2026, 197.0 thousand in June, 196.4 thousand in July, 195.1 thousand in August, and 198.6 thousand in September. BLS Table B-6a: production and nonsupervisory employment, seasonally adjusted

Month in 2026Production and nonsupervisory employees (thousands)
May194.9
June197.0
July196.4
August195.1
September198.6

This series has a different population and seasonal treatment from the total nonfarm payroll figures above. It is limited to production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls and is seasonally adjusted. Therefore, its values should not be treated as a replacement for the broader, not seasonally adjusted NAICS 4452 total. The definition and adjustment status are essential to interpreting the count. BLS Table B-6a

The series is not a direct measure of a particular occupation, such as counter staff, but a published employment grouping. Within the five listed months, it records a dip after June, followed by the September value of 198.6 thousand. No cause for those month-to-month movements is established by the table. BLS Table B-6a

Specialty food retail employment statistics: women’s employment and share

BLS reports women’s employment for specialty food retailers in a seasonally adjusted series. The employment section gives 129.1 thousand women employees in July 2026, 127.4 thousand in August, and 128.6 thousand in September. The figures are thousands of women on nonfarm payrolls. BLS Table B-5a: women’s nonfarm payroll employment

Month in 2026Women employees (thousands)Women as percent of industry employment
July129.154.6%
August127.453.8%
September128.653.6%

The same BLS table prints a separate “Women as percent of industry employment” measure. It reports 54.6% for July, 53.8% for August, and 53.6% for September 2026. These percentages are the source’s published values, paired here with the corresponding women’s employment levels. The percentages should not be reconstructed by dividing the displayed headcounts by another series, because the table supplies the percentage measure directly. BLS Table B-5a

Both women’s employment and the printed percentage are seasonally adjusted, but they express different things: one is a count in thousands, while the other is a share of industry employment. The observed percentage is lower in each successive month shown, while women’s payroll employment itself moves from 129.1 thousand to 127.4 thousand and then 128.6 thousand. These short sequences describe the recorded values; they do not explain the change or establish a longer-term trend. BLS Table B-5a

Specialty food retail employment statistics: annual specialty food store employment index

An annual BLS-sourced series published through ALFRED reports an employment index for U.S. retail trade specialty food stores, NAICS 4452. Its unit is “Index 2017=100,” and it is not seasonally adjusted. The observations are 97.600 for 2021, 96.379 for 2022, 101.546 for 2023, 98.617 for 2024, and 94.548 for 2025. ALFRED: Employment for Retail Trade: Specialty Food Stores (NAICS 4452)

YearAnnual employment index (2017=100)
202197.600
202296.379
2023101.546
202498.617
202594.548

An index is not a headcount. The base of 2017=100 provides a reference for interpreting the series values, but these observations do not state how many employees worked in specialty food stores. The index is annual and not seasonally adjusted, unlike the monthly BLS tables above, which report employment counts under their respective definitions. ALFRED series IPUHN4452W010000000

The series notes define employment to include wage and salary workers, unincorporated self-employed workers, and unpaid family workers working within establishments. Jobs at separate establishments may count separately. That scope differs from the monthly nonfarm payroll measures, making the index useful as its own annual measure while requiring care in any comparison with payroll headcounts. ALFRED series IPUHN4452W010000000

Sources

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