As we saw in Monday’s post, the overall wholesale industry is doing reasonably well. However, certain industries within this sector are seeing major change and experiencing shrinkage. Those involved as wholesalers of industrial supplies in the United States, perhaps not surprisingly, have seen declines over the last decade. This is very likely a reflection of changes in the manufacturing sector generally, including such things as automation and the outsourcing and off-shoring of many assembly operations.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: Number of Establishments: 15,055 and 8,259 respectively.
Market size: Sales: $64.86 and $54.89 billion respectively.
Market size: Employment: 140,735 and 87,975 respectively.
Source: “Sector 42: EC0742I2: Wholesale Trade: Industry Series: Preliminary Comparative Statistics for the United States (2002 NAICS Basis): 2007 and 2002,” 2007 Economic Census, available online here. The data from 1997 are from the 1997 Economic Census, after conversion of the data to a NAICS 2002 basis.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.