# E-commerce jobs are clustering in larger cities

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-07-07

ecommerce, new-york-times, online-shopping, retail, retail-data, retail-employment, shifting-retail-employment, shopping, uncategorized

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The New York Times just ran an interesting piece on “[how the growth of e-commerce is shifting retail jobs](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/06/business/ecommerce-retail-jobs.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0).”

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.

![image](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f820515c713c43ff6330f5bafe24f019.png)

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_](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/06/business/ecommerce-retail-jobs.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/e-commerce-jobs-are-clustering-in-larger-cities)*