Employment Figures
U.S. jobs in sales have grown for the past five years—and grown well (12.7%).
| Description | 2009 Jobs | 2014 Jobs | Change | % Change | Annual Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: EMSI 2014.3 Class of Worker — QCEW Employees, Non-QCEW Employees, Self-Employed, and Extended Proprietors | |||||
| Parts Salespersons | 213,237 | 234,242 | 21,005 | 10% | 10,447 |
| Advertising Sales Agents | 231,099 | 219,280 | (11,819) | (5%) | 9,610 |
| Insurance Sales Agents | 960,383 | 1,192,547 | 232,164 | 24% | 80,584 |
| Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents | 1,035,399 | 1,196,099 | 160,700 | 16% | 72,743 |
| Sales Representatives, Services, All Other | 966,613 | 1,004,766 | 38,153 | 4% | 43,672 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | 391,573 | 415,732 | 24,159 | 6% | 16,028 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,622,073 | 1,741,735 | 119,662 | 7% | 66,928 |
| Real Estate Brokers | 611,667 | 716,906 | 105,239 | 17% | 31,165 |
| Real Estate Sales Agents | 3,303,399 | 3,911,882 | 608,483 | 18% | 173,470 |
| Sales Engineers | 69,827 | 72,439 | 2,612 | 4% | 2,479 |
| Telemarketers | 255,022 | 276,336 | 21,314 | 8% | 12,838 |
| Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers | 911,496 | 957,272 | 45,776 | 5% | 31,481 |
| Sales and Related Workers, All Other | 263,648 | 272,533 | 8,885 | 3% | 11,196 |
| Total | 10,835,436 | 12,211,769 | 1,376,333 | 13% | 562,640 |
Within sales, there are two very clear types of employment: Either you are employed in sales by a company (39% of sales jobs in the U.S. falls into this category) or you are self-employed or another type or proprietor (69%). Employed by a company, you usually draw some amount of wages that are complemented by performance-based commission. Also, there is usually some form of unemployment insurance if you were to lose your job. These kinds of sales positions typically involve one or two of these things: regular hours, a fixed office/place of work, and high technical knowledge—jobs like sales in services, technical, or scientific equipment sales; telemarketing; or parts (usually auto) sales. These jobs are tracked by standard government employment datasets like the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and tabulates industry employment covered by unemployment insurance.
As you can see in the table below, there has been overall growth in traditional sales employment, with really high growth in insurance sales jobs:| Description | 2009 Jobs | 2014 Jobs | Change | % Change | Annual Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: EMSI 2014.3 Class of Worker — Employees | |||||
| Parts Salespersons | 208,107 | 230,638 | 22,531 | 11% | 10,278 |
| Advertising Sales Agents | 179,256 | 167,073 | (12,183) | (7%) | 6,792 |
| Insurance Sales Agents | 498,101 | 638,142 | 140,041 | 28% | 45,194 |
| Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents | 337,343 | 332,066 | (5,277) | (2%) | 10,859 |
| Sales Representatives, Services, All Other | 810,414 | 850,873 | 40,459 | 5% | 36,961 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | 361,099 | 377,376 | 16,277 | 5% | 12,997 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,384,222 | 1,463,191 | 78,969 | 6% | 49,837 |
| Real Estate Brokers | 55,799 | 51,275 | (4,524) | (8%) | 1,496 |
| Real Estate Sales Agents | 224,488 | 207,285 | (17,203) | (8%) | 5,776 |
| Sales Engineers | 69,827 | 72,439 | 2,612 | 4% | 2,479 |
| Telemarketers | 230,987 | 246,238 | 15,251 | 7% | 10,766 |
| Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers | 7,200 | 6,447 | (753) | (10%) | 96 |
| Sales and Related Workers, All Other | 110,800 | 122,064 | 11,264 | 10% | 4,845 |
| Total | 4,477,643 | 4,765,108 | 287,465 | 6% | 198,375 |
Self-Employment in Sales
With self-employed/proprietor sales, there are no wages; your pay is completely commission-based. Obviously, you are working for someone, but you are considered a contractor rather than an employee. Examples would be real estate agents & brokers, securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents, and door-to-door salesworkers. We capture data on these occupations with a combination of Census and BEA data—and given how much of these occupations fall into types of self-employment, using this data (and not just QCEW) is essential to having a complete picture of sales jobs.
Since 2009, the number of self-employed/proprietor sales jobs has grown by over a million:| Description | 2009 Jobs | 2014 Jobs | Change | % Change | Annual Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: EMSI 2014.3 Class of Worker — Self-Employed and Extended Proprietors | |||||
| Parts Salespersons | 5,129 | 3,604 | (1,525) | (30%) | 169 |
| Advertising Sales Agents | 51,843 | 52,207 | 364 | 1% | 2,818 |
| Insurance Sales Agents | 462,282 | 554,405 | 92,123 | 20% | 35,390 |
| Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents | 698,057 | 864,033 | 165,976 | 24% | 61,884 |
| Sales Representatives, Services, All Other | 156,199 | 153,893 | (2,306) | (1%) | 6,711 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | 30,475 | 38,356 | 7,881 | 26% | 3,032 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 237,851 | 278,544 | 40,693 | 17% | 17,091 |
| Real Estate Brokers | 555,868 | 665,631 | 109,763 | 20% | 29,669 |
| Real Estate Sales Agents | 3,078,911 | 3,704,597 | 625,686 | 20% | 167,694 |
| Sales Engineers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 |
| Telemarketers | 24,035 | 30,097 | 6,062 | 25% | 2,072 |
| Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers | 904,296 | 950,825 | 46,529 | 5% | 31,385 |
| Sales and Related Workers, All Other | 152,847 | 150,468 | (2,379) | (2%) | 6,351 |
| Total | 6,357,793 | 7,446,661 | 1,088,868 | 17% | 364,266 |
Over the last five years, 70% of total new sales jobs in the U.S. came in the self-employed/proprietor ranks. In fact, the only growth in the example occupations listed above came from self-employment and miscellaneous proprietors (what EMSI calls “extended proprietors”), whereas company employment has declined. Not only has corporate employment declined, but even self-employment as the sole (or majority) source of income and time spent is also in decline. The growth in self-employment is completely bolstered by workers who do not claim their independent contract work as their only full-time job (i.e., they work as extended proprietors). How this will play out, or what it means for both the companies that utilize these contractors, still remains to be seen. But it’s undoubtedly the new normal in sales.
Posting vs. Hires
Since the start of 2013, there have been roughly four average monthly hires in sales occupations for every unique (or de-duplicated) job posting. The posting activity from employers has been strong, but the hiring activity has been much stronger. This is most obviously manifested in real estate, where scant postings for real estate sales agents, for instance, are juxtaposed by more than 180,000 average monthly hires.
On the flip side, notice wholesale and manufacturing sales reps of technical and scientific products and sales engineers. Postings outnumber hires in both occupations, which could indicate that employers can’t find the technically minded sales talent they need. (This is also the case with sales managers, one of the best jobs for 2015 we highlighted with CareerBuilder based on supply-demand imbalances.)
Since the beginning of 2013, posting intensity in these sales occupations has alternated between three to four total job postings for every unique job posting. The postings for general salespeople has shown the highest growth, but again more technical sales positions have also shown strong growth in the last two years.
Sales Cities
There are two types of cities that we highlight in the table below: big metros for sales (greater than 25,000 sales jobs) and smaller cities with oddly high or low concentrations of sales jobs. The highest concentration of sales jobs in the US is found in the Fallon, Nevada, area—one of the sites of the movie “Top Gun” and home to lots of real estate sales agents. Florida holds a number of metros with high concentrations of sales jobs: Sarasota, Fort Myers, and Miami. Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Fairbanks, Alaska, round out the bottom of our list, with half of the sales we would expect to find in any normal town.
Note: The job numbers in the following table are for traditional employees plus self-employed workers and extended proprietors.| MSA | 2009 Jobs | 2014 Jobs | Change | % Change | 2014 LQ | Median Hourly Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 3,715,449 | 4,226,785 | 511,336 | 14% | $21.42 | |
| Fallon, NV | 3,146 | 4,484 | 1,338 | 43% | 2.43 | $12.67 |
| Gardnerville Ranchos, NV | 3,009 | 4,156 | 1,147 | 38% | 1.97 | $17.41 |
| North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 36,769 | 43,151 | 6,382 | 17% | 1.62 | $16.38 |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | 26,388 | 31,678 | 5,290 | 20% | 1.50 | $15.89 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 267,411 | 326,619 | 59,208 | 22% | 1.43 | $17.84 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 196,521 | 224,705 | 28,184 | 14% | 1.39 | $17.51 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT | 49,471 | 56,369 | 6,898 | 14% | 1.37 | $28.58 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 112,470 | 124,466 | 11,996 | 11% | 1.21 | $18.32 |
| Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 129,952 | 143,995 | 14,043 | 11% | 1.21 | $21.03 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | 30,979 | 35,227 | 4,248 | 14% | 1.20 | $20.21 |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 78,661 | 96,999 | 18,338 | 23% | 1.20 | $20.88 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 551,218 | 627,108 | 75,890 | 14% | 1.19 | $20.99 |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 58,266 | 65,300 | 7,034 | 12% | 1.19 | $20.58 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 289,674 | 339,613 | 49,939 | 17% | 1.17 | $20.91 |
| Boise City, ID | 26,763 | 28,823 | 2,060 | 8% | 1.17 | $17.49 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 203,766 | 226,722 | 22,956 | 11% | 1.16 | $23.63 |
| San Diego-Carlsbad, CA | 130,958 | 144,136 | 13,178 | 10% | 1.13 | $19.05 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 219,577 | 244,775 | 25,198 | 11% | 1.12 | $19.89 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 764,382 | 875,402 | 111,020 | 15% | 1.12 | $25.81 |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV | 77,988 | 85,058 | 7,070 | 9% | 1.11 | $16.51 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 359,214 | 389,165 | 29,951 | 8% | 1.05 | $22.13 |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 25,037 | 28,175 | 3,138 | 13% | 0.83 | $17.81 |
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | 26,382 | 29,616 | 3,234 | 12% | 0.83 | $19.05 |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 40,404 | 43,341 | 2,937 | 7% | 0.82 | $18.98 |
| Ithaca, NY | 1,998 | 2,199 | 201 | 10% | 0.52 | $18.05 |
| Jacksonville, NC | 3,150 | 3,685 | 535 | 17% | 0.50 | $13.91 |
| Fairbanks, AK | 1,894 | 1,819 | (75) | (4%) | 0.48 | $16.09 |
Sales Wages
Wages in some sales jobs can be very high—and the highest are very clearly linked to specific technical knowledge: sales engineers, technical or scientific sales, securities commodities, and financial services command a premium wage.
The takeaway is that education and/or technical expertise helps increase a sales professional’s income. Workers going into this occupation could do well by learning technical subjects—and they should also expect to probably be their own boss.For more on EMSI’s employment data—available at the county, MSA, and ZIP code level—or to see data for your region, email Josh Wright. Follow EMSI on Twitter (@DesktopEcon) or check us out on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Illustration by Mark Beauchamp.
