Revenue in the wholesale distribution industry reached $8.2 trillion in 2024. Among durable goods, wholesalers generated significant sale revenue from household appliances, electrical and electronic goods, professional and commercial equipment and supplies, and motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and supplies. Among nondurable goods, significant revenue was generated by the sale of pharmaceuticals, petroleum and petroleum products, and grocery and related products.
One measure of the efficiency of the various sectors within an industry is the ratio of sales dollars to payroll dollars. (Of course, efficiency also depends on minimizing other costs, such as warehousing and shipping, but payroll is usually the biggest cost factor.) By this measure, the most efficient sector of durable goods by far is motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts, followed by metals and minerals. Among the types of nondurable goods, petroleum and petroleum products is by far the most efficient sector, followed by farm product raw materials.
One difference between the various parts of this industry is the size of the firms and the concentration of businesses in the firms. Among durable and nondurable goods wholesalers, more than half of the firms that operate year-round have fewer than five employees. Among wholesale electronic markets and agents and brokers, however, more than three-quarters of the firms are that small. A business that is purely about deal-making requires fewer employees than one involving warehousing and shipping. On the other hand, despite the presence of so many small firms, the deal-making sector of the industry is more top-heavy than the other two sectors.
As a whole, the wholesale industry employs more than 6.1 million workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). This includes nearly one million wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives, with 17.4 percent selling technical or scientific products. About 25.1 percent of wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are women. This percentage is significantly lower than their representation (about 47 percent) in the U.S. workforce. There were 71,100 wholesale and retail buyers (except farm products). Nearly 47 percent of these workers were women. A portion of the industry workforce is also engaged in transportation and in moving materials. This includes nearly 393,700 workers in both durable and nondurable goods who move freight and stock by hand, and 259,550 who drive heavy and tractor-trailer trucks and light trucks or delivery trucks. Another portion of the industry workforce holds office and administrative support occupations. Prominent among these as of 2023 are 232,100 information and record clerks; 182,400 customer service representatives; 162,300 financial clerks; 140,300 general office clerks; 140,200 shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks; and 84,800 secretaries and administrative assistants.
Most of these occupations require no formal education beyond high school, and workers are mostly trained on the job or learn the skills from work experience elsewhere. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers need a commercial driver's license, and while on duty they are randomly tested for drug or alcohol abuse. Sales workers who deal in technical and scientific goods are often expected to have a bachelor's degree in a relevant field, although it is sometimes possible to acquire knowledge of a technical product line through work experience. Managers of sales workers usually have a bachelor's degree plus several years of work experience as a sales representative.
Unions have only a small presence in this industry. About 4.6 percent of the workers were union members in 2024, and 5.3 percent were represented by unions. The union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—was 9.9 percent in 2024, according to the DOL.