Washington, DC retail statistics show a sector with substantial tax collections and a relatively stable employment base. The District collected $961.531 million in general-rate retail sales taxes in fiscal year 2025, while retail trade employment in the District ranged from 19.5 thousand to 20.0 thousand jobs during calendar year 2025. The wider Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area recorded between 62.4 thousand and 64.6 thousand retail trade jobs over the same year.
Contents
- District retail sales-tax collections
- How inflation changes the picture
- What the tax categories show
- District retail employment in 2025
- District retail employment in 2024
- District and metro employment compared
District retail sales-tax collections
The District’s general-rate retail sales-tax collections increased from $692.300 million in fiscal year 2019 to $961.531 million in fiscal year 2025. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer describes that as a 38.9% nominal increase between the two fiscal years. The general retail sales-tax rate was 6.00% in both points of the comparison. These are fiscal-year tax collections, not a direct measure of store sales or calendar-year retail receipts.
The 2025 collection figure represented 46% of the District’s total sales-tax revenue. General retail, restaurant, and hotel subcategories together represented 93% of total sales-tax revenue in FY 2025. That concentration makes retail-related tax collections an important part of the District’s sales-tax picture, while also showing why a retail-only figure should not be treated as the whole sales-tax base.
For context, the District collected $1,597.800 million in total general sales and use taxes across the report’s eight categories in FY 2019. The comparable FY 2025 total was $2,090.748 million. Total general sales and use tax revenue therefore increased 30.9% from FY 2019 to FY 2025. The comparison is between the same reported tax framework, but the totals include all eight categories rather than general retail alone.
| Measure | FY 2019 | FY 2025 | Reported change or share |
|---|---|---|---|
| General-rate retail sales-tax collections | $692.300 million | $961.531 million | 38.9% higher, nominal |
| Total general sales and use taxes | $1,597.800 million | $2,090.748 million | 30.9% higher |
| General retail sales-tax rate | 6.00% | 6.00% | Same rate in comparison |
| General retail share of total sales-tax revenue | — | 46% | FY 2025 |
Source: DC Restaurant Sector Lags Hotel and Other Retail in Post-pandemic Recovery, Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
How inflation changes the picture
The nominal increase in general retail sales-tax collections does not represent the entire change in underlying activity. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer estimated that inflation accounted for 17.8% of the District’s FY 2025 general retail tax collections. In dollar terms, the inflationary component was estimated at $170.9 million.
After that inflation adjustment, the estimated real value of FY 2025 general retail tax collections was $790.7 million. The report estimated that real retail tax collections grew 14.2% from 2019 to 2025. This real-growth figure is different from the 38.9% nominal increase because it removes the estimated inflation component identified in the report.
The report also identified a 12.8% increase in estimated real retail activity in 2022, the largest one-year increase in its 2019–2025 series. Across the full 2019–2025 period, estimated real retail activity grew by an average of 2.2% annually. That annual average describes the report’s estimated real series; it is not a monthly employment growth rate and should not be used as one.
These distinctions matter when reading Washington DC retail statistics. Tax collections are measured in dollars, the 6.00% rate is a policy rate, and real activity is an inflation-adjusted estimate. They describe related parts of the retail economy, but they are not interchangeable measures of the number of transactions, stores, or workers.
Source: DC Restaurant Sector Lags Hotel and Other Retail in Post-pandemic Recovery, Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The inflation-adjusted figures are estimates reported in that source.
What the tax categories show
The FY 2025 category shares put general retail in the context of other consumer-facing activity. General retail alone accounted for 46% of the District’s total sales-tax revenue. General retail, restaurants, and hotels together accounted for 93%. The remaining share was therefore outside those three subcategories, but the supplied source does not quantify each remaining category separately here.
The two totals also provide a useful scope check. General retail collections were $961.531 million in FY 2025, while all eight reported general sales-and-use-tax categories produced $2,090.748 million. In FY 2019, the corresponding figures were $692.300 million and $1,597.800 million. The retail figure should therefore be read as one component of the District’s tax base, not as a replacement for the broader total.
The rate comparison is equally important. Because the general retail sales-tax rate was 6.00% in both FY 2019 and FY 2025, the reported change in collections occurred within a comparison where the stated general rate was unchanged. That does not by itself identify the causes of the change, and the source’s nominal and real measures should be kept separate.
District retail employment in 2025
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics series reports District of Columbia retail trade employment in thousands of jobs, not seasonally adjusted. Employment was 19.9 thousand jobs in January 2025 and 19.8 thousand in February. It reached 20.0 thousand in March and remained at 20.0 thousand in April.
The measure was 19.8 thousand jobs in May and 19.8 thousand in June, followed by 19.7 thousand in July and 19.7 thousand in August. September was 19.6 thousand, the lowest monthly figure in the supplied 2025 District series. Employment then measured 19.7 thousand in October, 19.5 thousand in November, and 19.7 thousand in December.
| Month in 2025 | District retail trade employment |
|---|---|
| January | 19.9 thousand |
| February | 19.8 thousand |
| March | 20.0 thousand |
| April | 20.0 thousand |
| May | 19.8 thousand |
| June | 19.8 thousand |
| July | 19.7 thousand |
| August | 19.7 thousand |
| September | 19.6 thousand |
| October | 19.7 thousand |
| November | 19.5 thousand |
| December | 19.7 thousand |
The range across the year was 0.5 thousand jobs, from 19.5 thousand in November to 20.0 thousand in March and April. Because the series is not seasonally adjusted, month-to-month differences can reflect regular seasonal patterns as well as changes in employment. The figures are jobs in the retail trade series, not a count of individual people or establishments.
Source: Current Employment Statistics: District of Columbia Retail Trade, All Employees (in thousands), Not Seasonally Adjusted, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
District retail employment in 2024
The same BLS series reported 20.1 thousand District retail trade jobs in January 2024. February measured 20.0 thousand, while March, April, May, and June each measured 20.1 thousand. Employment was 20.0 thousand in July and August, rose to 20.1 thousand in September, and then measured 19.8 thousand in October and November. December was 20.0 thousand.
The 2024 monthly range was 19.8 thousand to 20.1 thousand jobs, a narrower span than the 2025 range in the supplied figures. The highest reported 2024 value, 20.1 thousand, occurred in January, March, April, May, June, and September. The lowest, 19.8 thousand, occurred in October and November.
Reading the two years side by side shows the reported level was generally around 20 thousand jobs in both years. The supplied figures do not provide a seasonally adjusted series, annual average, or explanation of the changes, so the monthly observations are best used as a time-stamped employment record rather than as evidence of a specific cause.
Source: Current Employment Statistics: District of Columbia Retail Trade, All Employees (in thousands), Not Seasonally Adjusted, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
District and metro employment compared
The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan-area series covers a broader geography than the District alone. It reported 63.7 thousand retail trade jobs in January 2025, 63.2 thousand in February, and 63.2 thousand in March. April and May measured 62.8 thousand and 62.9 thousand, respectively, while June was 62.9 thousand.
The metro figure was 63.0 thousand jobs in July, 62.8 thousand in August, and 62.4 thousand in September. It then increased to 63.0 thousand in October, 63.8 thousand in November, and 64.6 thousand in December. September was the lowest monthly figure in the supplied 2025 metro series, and December was the highest.
| 2025 employment measure | Lowest month and level | Highest month and level |
|---|---|---|
| District retail trade | November, 19.5 thousand | March and April, 20.0 thousand |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro retail trade | September, 62.4 thousand | December, 64.6 thousand |
The metro series therefore ranged across 2.2 thousand jobs during 2025, compared with a 0.5-thousand-job range for the District series. The two series should not be treated as a direct city-versus-suburbs accounting comparison: the District is a jurisdiction, while the metropolitan series spans Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia as named in the BLS series title.
Source: Current Employment Statistics: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Retail Trade, All Employees (in thousands), Not Seasonally Adjusted, Bureau of Labor Statistics.