The New York Times just ran an interesting piece on “how the growth of e-commerce is shifting retail jobs.”

Here are some of the key takeaways (all US data).

Online shopping accounts for about 8.4% of all retail sales.

But e-commerce related jobs are growing way faster than all other forms of retail employment. See above graph.

That said, e-commerce jobs are still a small portion of overall retail employment. And the rise in e-commerce employment has not been enough to offset the losses in other areas, such as in departments stores.

Over the last 15 years, e-commerce added 178,000 jobs and department stores lost 448,000 jobs. In this same time period, warehouse clubs added 841,000 jobs! I found it interesting to see department stores on the bottom and warehouse clubs on the top of the graph.

Finally, e-commerce jobs appear to be concentrating in larger metros. See above map. Each mustard dot represents 40 e-commerce jobs. You’re selling more products with less human capital, and those people are clustering. This is a broader trend.

According to the New York Times, counties and smaller cities (under 250,000 people) account for almost ¼ of overall retail employment. But when it comes to e-commerce firms the number drops to around 13%.

Once again it would seem that technology and what we do online have an impact on our cities and towns. And that’s fascinating.

All images from the New York Times

The New York Times just ran an interesting piece on “how the growth of e-commerce is shifting retail jobs.”

Here are some of the key takeaways (all US data).

Online shopping accounts for about 8.4% of all retail sales.

But e-commerce related jobs are growing way faster than all other forms of retail employment. See above graph.

That said, e-commerce jobs are still a small portion of overall retail employment. And the rise in e-commerce employment has not been enough to offset the losses in other areas, such as in departments stores.

Over the last 15 years, e-commerce added 178,000 jobs and department stores lost 448,000 jobs. In this same time period, warehouse clubs added 841,000 jobs! I found it interesting to see department stores on the bottom and warehouse clubs on the top of the graph.

Finally, e-commerce jobs appear to be concentrating in larger metros. See above map. Each mustard dot represents 40 e-commerce jobs. You’re selling more products with less human capital, and those people are clustering. This is a broader trend.

According to the New York Times, counties and smaller cities (under 250,000 people) account for almost ¼ of overall retail employment. But when it comes to e-commerce firms the number drops to around 13%.

Once again it would seem that technology and what we do online have an impact on our cities and towns. And that’s fascinating.

All images from the New York Times