The Fall and Slow Rise of Home Furnishing Retail Stores Percent Shift in Home Furnishings Retail Store Characteristics 2007 vs. 2012
April 22,
2016 by in General 
The Fall and Slow Rise of Home Furnishing Retail Stores Percent Shift in Home Furnishings Retail Store Characteristics 2007 vs. 2012
This is the third factoid in a series of five factoids detailing how hard Home Furnishings retail stores were hit across the country during the Recession. The furniture industry suffered greatly due to the collapse of the housing industry and the high unemployment rate. And it has been one of the slowest to dig out. While current data is maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the broad Home Furnishings category, data from the recent Geography release from the 2012 Economic Census shows the impact of the recession on the store types -- Furniture Stores, Home Furnishings Stores, and Floor Covering Stores.
The data shows that for Furniture and Floor Covering Stores, not only were the store closures significant, but remaining locations also cut back on employees. Furniture stores lost 18 percent of locations, Home Furnishings stores 23.8 percent and Floor Covering stores 21.7 percent.
The Fall and Slow Rise of Home Furnishing Retail Stores Percent Shift in Number of Establishments by Region 2007 to 2012
This is the fourth factoid in a series of five factoids detailing how hard Home Furnishings retail stores were hit across the country during the Recession. The furniture industry suffered greatly due to the collapse of the housing industry and the high unemployment rate. And it has been one of the slowest to dig out. While current data is maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the broad Home Furnishings category, data from the recent Geography release from the 2012 Economic Census shows the impact of the recession on the store types -- Furniture Stores, Home Furnishings Stores, and Floor Covering Stores.
Although store closings were systemic across the country, the Northeastern and the Western states were the hardest hit. Compared to a loss of 13.4 percent of Furniture stores in the South, the West almost doubled that percentage closing 26.2 percent. Meanwhile Floor Covering Stores closed the most doors in the Midwest, 26.7 percent.
The Fall and Slow Rise of Home Furnishing Retail Stores Percent Shift in Number of Establishments and Employees by Store Type and Market Size 2007 vs. 2012
This is the final factoid in a series of five factoids detailing how hard Home Furnishings retail stores were hit across the country during the Recession. The furniture industry suffered greatly due to the collapse of the housing industry and the high unemployment rate. And it has been one of the slowest to dig out. While current data is maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the broad Home Furnishings category, data from the recent Geography release from the 2012 Economic Census shows the impact of the recession on the store types -- Furniture Stores, Home Furnishings Stores, and Floor Covering Stores.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), Micropolitan Statistical Areas (Micro SA), and Rural Areas all experienced widespread store closures, employee reductions, and decreases in annual payroll 2007 to 2012. Looking at the impact of store closings on markets by industry size, mid-sized markets (under $100 million) tended to fare only slightly better than large markets with over $100 million in industry sales or small Micropolitan Statistical Areas. Furniture Store closing were the least impacted with mid-sized markets faring the best, but still closing 16.1 percent of stores during the 2007 to 2012 period. Meanwhile over 27 percent of Floor Covering stores closed in Micropolitan Statistical Areas.
Furniture Stores were forced to cut almost 30 percent of employees across all markets from 2007 to 2012. Floor Covering Stores had the highest percentage of employee cutbacks - the largest occurring in Micropolitan Statistical Areas with a 38.1 percent drop. Home Furnishing Stores suffered the least amount of employee loss – most likely due to a wider variety of non-furniture merchandise as well as typically smaller store sizes.