California · NAICS 459 · Annual, 2025

Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Miscellaneous Retailers in California

Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 459 in California, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.

In 2025, Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Miscellaneous Retailers (NAICS 459) employed about 152,700 people in California across roughly 20,365 establishments, with average annual pay of $44,830.

Employment in Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Miscellaneous Retailers in California grew 20.9% from 2020 to 2025. Average pay in the industry is 53.8% below the all-industries average in California. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for California are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.

  • 152,700Employment, 2025
  • 20,365Establishments
  • $44,830Avg. annual pay
  • 0.8%Share of California jobs
  • 0.88Location quotient

Employment, 2004 to 2025

Annual average · all ownerships

Employment in Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Miscellaneous Retailers in California, 2004–2025Line chart of annual employment from 2004 to 2025, from 174,400 to 152,700.050K100K150K200K20042010201520202025

Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 174,400; 2005 174,100; 2006 175,900; 2007 174,900; 2008 167,700; 2009 154,800; 2010 151,800; 2011 151,800; 2012 152,600; 2013 157,300; 2014 161,100; 2015 160,800; 2016 157,500; 2017 155,800; 2018 153,400; 2019 150,500; 2020 126,300; 2021 140,600; 2022 166,100; 2023 162,200; 2024 157,000; 2025 152,700.

Last ten years

Annual · 10 years

YearEmploymentEstab.Avg. annual payChangeSource
2025152,73020,365$44,832 2.7%pub.
2024156,99819,875$43,255 3.2%pub.
2023162,17919,878$42,108 2.4%pub.
2022166,12819,361$41,672 18.1%pub.
2021140,63416,250$39,691 11.3%est. · 1.00
2020126,31216,029$37,211 16.1%est. · 1.00
2019150,54916,262$33,218 1.9%est. · 1.00
2018153,43016,225$32,136 1.5%est. · 1.00
2017155,81515,599$30,709 1.1%est. · 1.00
2016157,54615,487$29,273 2.1%est. · 1.00

† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.

The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.

Where these numbers come from

Reading these figures

The figures on this page come from one named vintage, stated below, and are annual values for all ownerships combined. Where QCEW withheld a value, the marked figure is an estimate that DTG produced under the constraints of the published record; suppression is a property of QCEW, not of DTG, and a withheld value is marked rather than silently omitted. Two things DTG itself holds back, and says so where it does: an estimate that cannot be given a reliability score is not shown, and average pay is not shown where fewer than three jobs are reported. The row is marked withheld, with the reason in a note beneath the table. The mark is on every row that carries a value: the headline, the yearly history, the subsectors and the other states. An estimated value that rounds below one is shown as less than one, not as zero. Quarterly figures, county figures and projected years are in the app.

How this figure was built

Employment is the average of the three monthly counts in each quarter, averaged across the year, and establishments are averaged across the year the same way. Average annual pay is the year’s total wages divided by that average employment. Each of these is DTG’s value: QCEW’s published figure where QCEW disclosed it, and DTG’s estimate, marked, where it did not. How withheld values are estimated, and what the reliability score beside a figure means, are described on the industry data and disclosure and provenance pages.

Estimated by Data Tactical Group from BLS QCEW, with CES/SAE and projection inputs described in the methodology. Method: Disclosure, Industry.

Notes

Data Tactical Group is an independent company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any federal agency.

Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Miscellaneous Retailers in California, quarterly, at full depth

This page shows annual figures for sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and miscellaneous retailers in California. A free account shows every detailed industry beneath it, quarterly, for every state, with projections to ten years. No card.

County figures, file export and the API are on paid plans.