Grocery and convenience retailers employed 2,853.6 thousand people on a seasonally adjusted basis in April 2026. The same industry recorded average hourly earnings of $22.46 and average weekly earnings of $676.05 that month. These figures show both the scale of grocery work and the difference between employment, pay, and hours measures.
Contents
- Seasonally adjusted payroll employment
- Unadjusted payroll employment
- Supermarkets and convenience retailers
- Production and nonsupervisory employment
- Grocery employee earnings
- Weekly hours for grocery workers
Seasonally adjusted payroll employment
Seasonally adjusted figures are useful for comparing months because recurring seasonal patterns have been removed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 2,849.1 thousand employees in grocery and convenience retailers in May 2025. Employment then reached 2,855.4 thousand in January 2026 before moving to 2,844.9 thousand in February, 2,854.3 thousand in March, and 2,853.6 thousand in April.
The month-to-month pattern was therefore not a straight rise. January was the highest of the listed 2026 months, February was the lowest, and employment recovered in March before edging down in April. The difference between January and April was 1.8 thousand employees, while the difference between February and April was 8.7 thousand.
These payroll figures cover grocery and convenience retailers together. They are reported in thousands of employees, so 2,853.6 thousand means 2,853,600 employees in the unit used by the table. The relevant source is the BLS Table B-1a, seasonally adjusted payroll employment.
| Month | Seasonally adjusted employment (thousand) |
|---|---|
| May 2025 | 2,849.1 |
| January 2026 | 2,855.4 |
| February 2026 | 2,844.9 |
| March 2026 | 2,854.3 |
| April 2026 | 2,853.6 |
The May 2025 and April 2026 observations are close, but the intervening months show why a single monthly number should be read in context. This series describes payroll employment, not the number of job seekers, job openings, or unique people who worked during the entire period.
Unadjusted payroll employment
The not-seasonally-adjusted series includes the underlying monthly pattern. Grocery and convenience retailers employed 2,837.0 thousand people in May 2025, 2,858.8 thousand in January 2026, 2,851.9 thousand in February, 2,846.2 thousand in March, and 2,842.7 thousand in April.
January 2026 was the highest listed unadjusted month at 2,858.8 thousand. April was the lowest listed 2026 month at 2,842.7 thousand. The spread between those two observations was 16.1 thousand employees. In May 2025, the unadjusted total was 2,837.0 thousand.
The adjusted and unadjusted series answer slightly different comparison questions. The seasonally adjusted series is designed to make month-to-month movements easier to interpret after recurring seasonal effects are accounted for. The unadjusted series reports the employment level without that adjustment. Neither series should be treated as a direct measure of household grocery spending or store sales.
The figures come from the BLS Table B-1b, not-seasonally-adjusted payroll employment. Keeping the series labels attached matters: the 2,853.6 thousand employees in April 2026 is seasonally adjusted, while the 2,842.7 thousand figure for the same month is not.
Supermarkets and convenience retailers
The combined grocery-and-convenience total can be separated into supermarkets and other grocery retailers, excluding convenience retailers, and convenience retailers and vending machine operators. On a seasonally adjusted basis, supermarkets and other grocery retailers employed 2,645.0 thousand people in May 2025, 2,654.7 thousand in January 2026, 2,650.2 thousand in February, 2,653.1 thousand in March, and 2,651.4 thousand in April.
Convenience retailers and vending machine operators employed 203.9 thousand people in May 2025, 200.8 thousand in January 2026, 198.8 thousand in February, and 201.1 thousand in March. The April convenience figure is not included among the supplied observations, so no April value is stated for that subgroup.
The supermarket subgroup was larger than the convenience-and-vending subgroup in every listed month. In May 2025, the reported subgroup levels were 2,645.0 thousand and 203.9 thousand. In January 2026, they were 2,654.7 thousand and 200.8 thousand. In February, they were 2,650.2 thousand and 198.8 thousand. In March, they were 2,653.1 thousand and 201.1 thousand.
This distinction is useful for readers interested in the labor behind meal planning and food access. A supermarket payroll measure and a convenience-retail payroll measure describe related but different retail settings. They should not be combined with an unsupported assumption about store count, average staffing, or the kinds of food each outlet sells.
These subgroup observations are from the BLS Table B-1a, seasonally adjusted payroll employment.
Production and nonsupervisory employment
Production and nonsupervisory employment is a narrower measure than employment of all employees. In grocery and convenience retailers, seasonally adjusted production and nonsupervisory employment was 2,584.3 thousand in May 2025, 2,586.3 thousand in January 2026, 2,582.1 thousand in February, 2,585.7 thousand in March, and 2,587.9 thousand in April.
For supermarkets and other grocery retailers, the corresponding figures were 2,422.3 thousand in May 2025, 2,430.0 thousand in January 2026, 2,427.4 thousand in February, 2,429.6 thousand in March, and 2,429.6 thousand in April. The supplied April value is the same as the supplied March value.
| Group and month | Production and nonsupervisory employment (thousand) |
|---|---|
| Grocery and convenience, May 2025 | 2,584.3 |
| Grocery and convenience, January 2026 | 2,586.3 |
| Grocery and convenience, April 2026 | 2,587.9 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery, May 2025 | 2,422.3 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery, January 2026 | 2,430.0 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery, April 2026 | 2,429.6 |
The grocery-and-convenience production and nonsupervisory series was 2,587.9 thousand in April 2026, compared with 2,853.6 thousand employees across all employee categories in the broader payroll series. These measures have different coverage, so the difference should not be described as a count of managers without further information.
The source is the BLS Table B-6a, production and nonsupervisory employment. The table labels and seasonal adjustment status should remain attached when comparing these numbers with total payroll employment.
Grocery employee earnings
Average hourly earnings for all employees in seasonally adjusted grocery and convenience retailers were $21.90 in May 2025, $22.33 in March 2026, and $22.46 in April 2026. Average weekly earnings for the same combined category were $648.24 in May 2025, $665.43 in March 2026, and $676.05 in April 2026.
The supermarket and other grocery retailer subgroup recorded average hourly earnings of $22.13 in May 2025, $22.65 in March 2026, and $22.77 in April 2026. Convenience retailers and vending machine operators recorded $19.20 in May 2025, $18.27 in March 2026, and $18.41 in April 2026.
| Category | May 2025 hourly | March 2026 hourly | April 2026 hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery and convenience retailers | $21.90 | $22.33 | $22.46 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery retailers | $22.13 | $22.65 | $22.77 |
| Convenience retailers and vending operators | $19.20 | $18.27 | $18.41 |
The reported April 2026 hourly average for supermarkets was $22.77, while the convenience-and-vending average was $18.41. The two subgroup measures describe different industry categories and should not be read as an individual worker’s wage offer, take-home pay, or guaranteed schedule.
The combined category’s average weekly earnings were $676.05 in April 2026. Weekly earnings incorporate both hourly earnings and hours worked, so they are a separate measure from the hourly average. The supplied data also contain one malformed weekly-earnings entry for supermarkets in March 2026; because it does not provide a valid dollar amount, it is not used here.
All earnings figures in this section are from the BLS Table B-3a, average hourly and weekly earnings. They are averages for the specified industry categories, not medians and not a forecast.
Weekly hours for grocery workers
Seasonally adjusted production and nonsupervisory employees in grocery and convenience retailers averaged 29.0 hours per week in May 2025, 29.6 hours in March 2026, and 29.8 hours in April 2026. In supermarkets and other grocery retailers, the averages were 29.0 hours in May 2025, 29.7 hours in March 2026, and 29.9 hours in April 2026.
Convenience retailers and vending machine operators recorded averages of 28.4 hours per week in May 2025, 27.1 hours in March 2026, and 27.6 hours in April 2026. Across the supplied months, the convenience-and-vending series was below the supermarket series in each like-for-like comparison.
The April 2026 comparison was 29.9 hours for supermarket production and nonsupervisory employees versus 27.6 hours for convenience and vending production and nonsupervisory employees. The combined grocery-and-convenience measure was 29.8 hours. These are average weekly hours for the specified employee group, not a definition of full-time status for every worker.
The hours data come from the BLS Table B-7a, average weekly hours. Reading hours alongside earnings helps distinguish an hourly-pay measure from a weekly-earnings measure, while still leaving individual schedules and job arrangements outside the scope of these industry averages.