Retail Trade in Tennessee

Retail Trade (NAICS 44) in Tennessee reports 349,855 workers across 23,463 establishments, with $12.7B of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 2.2% of national employment for this industry — a concentration ratio that tells you whether Tennessee is a primary labor market for this NAICS code or a smaller satellite. A share above 5% signals a meaningful regional cluster; below 1% usually means the state is not a structural fit for this industry at scale.

Wage benchmarking is where state-level data earns its keep. The average annual compensation for Retail Trade employees in Tennessee is $36,427/yr, versus a national average of $37,746/yr. Tennessee pays below the national average for this industry — common in lower cost-of-living states or where the industry has a smaller, less specialized local workforce.

Profitability data is only available at the national level because the IRS Statistics of Income program does not publish state-level margin breakdowns. The national net profit margin for Retail Trade is 4.2%, and while margins do vary by state, the direction of variance usually follows labor cost and establishment size — both shown above. For a complete picture, pair this state-industry view with the Retail Trade national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the Tennessee overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).