The Fall and Slow Rise of Home Furnishing Retail Stores Index Growth of Establishments, Employees, and Average Hourly Rates Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores 2007 to 2015
April 15,
2016 by in General 
This is the second factoid in a series of five factoids detailing how hard Home Furnishings retail stores were hit across the country during the Recession. As a whole the Furniture and Home Furnishings business lost 18 percent of its stores and data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the number of employees falling 23.6 percent and average hourly earnings decreasing 0.9 percent. Since 2012, the total industry has seen another 3.6 percent loss in stores. However both employment and hourly wages have improved, 6.1 percent and 9.3 percent respectively, signaling an ever-so-slow rebound.
Index Growth in this factoid shows the rapid reduction of stores during the Recession with the total Furniture and Home Furnishings industry dropping from almost 61,000 stores to 48,000 between 2007 and 2015.
Despite the continued loss of stores, hiring is picking up. Although not back to pre-recession levels, the number of employees is steadily increasing from 2012 – up 6.1 percent in 2015. In 2015 the industry employed 465,000 workers, down from 574,000 in 2007.
While average hourly earnings dipped -0.9 percent from 2007 to 2012, wages increased 9.3 percent since 2012 to $19.37– 2015 now exceeding pre-recession (2007) average earnings.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics