New-car dealerships employed 1.1 million in 2016, up 2.4 percent from the previous year and setting a record, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA)’s annual financial report.
In addition to the number of employees per dealership rising, payroll also grew, with average annual payroll up 4.9 percent at $65 billion. Average salaries were $69,000, and dealerships average 69 employees.
Those figures have been steadily increasing since the end of the recession.
“The past seven years have been the longest period of new-vehicle sales growth since the 1920s,” NADA Chief Economist Steven Szakaly said. “For 2017 we expect new light-vehicle sales to continue on a strong trend, ending another year above 17 million.”
Sales revenue in 2016 was $995.6 billion; net pretax profit, however, has remained flat at 2.5 percent. The average selling price for the 17.4 million new or leased vehicles was $34,449 while the average selling price for the 14.9 million used vehicles was $19,866.
The top states for dealership sales were California, Texas, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey.
Customers are turning more to dealerships for their vehicle maintenance needs. Customer repair orders for 2016 were 259 million, jumping 6.5 percent. The biggest increase was in express service, including oil changes, growing 10.9 percent.