Roughly one in 10 workers in the US works in retail . Widen the view to people who have worked in that industry at some point in their careers, and the number rockets up to six in 10, according to a 2019 report by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. For many, retail is a first job; for others, it's a lifelong career. Several top retail CEOs started out in hourly positions at the companies they now run. To get a sense of how much retail workers made in 2025, Business Insider