Dealers Add Workers But Pay Less in NADA H1 Report
The newly released NADA Data 2025: Midyear Report finds the U.S. dealership workforce has rebounded to 1.13 million members after falling to 1.01 million in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. But average and weekly earnings fell on a year-over-year basis as waning demand and affordability issues affect negotiations and sales team compensation.
Americans employed by the nation’s 16,972 franchised dealerships earned an average of $1,897 per week (or $98,644 per year) in 2024, down 1.7% from the prior year, while median weekly earnings fell 0.1% to $1,463 ($76,076). Average payroll per dealership was highest in Nevada ($8.6 million), Florida ($8.4 million) and Arizona ($8.2 million).
Ten-year consolidation trends favor larger groups: Dealers who own 10 or fewer rooftops accounted for 96.5% of new-vehicle sales in 2024, down from 98.3% in 2015, while 11-to-50-store owners grew their share from 0.7% in 2015 to 3.4% last year. Stores moving 750 to 1,499 units per month accounted for 21% of all new vehicle sales in 2024, followed by dealerships in the one-to-149- (18.9%) and 150-to-299-unit (17.7%) ranges.
Service and parts sales totaled $81 billion from 137 million repair orders, improving from $76 billion and 133 million ROs in 2023.
New-vehicle inventories are expected to fall short of early forecasts after decreasing by 6.6% to 2.6 million units in the first half. NADA Senior Economist Patrick Manzi says Trump administration-ordered tariffs on imported vehicles affected supplies on a factory-by-factory basis but did not derail the U.S. dealer body.
“In the first few months of this new trade policy, we have not seen much change in the
average dealership’s business. The average dealership through the first half of 2025 has
seen increased revenue and throughput,” Manzi writes in his introduction to the report. “In the face of change, America’s franchised dealers have always been innovators, and recent years have shown that dealers are resilient and can respond to any challenge that comes their way.”
The report also includes sections dedicated to amounts financed and interest rates, new and used car buyer profiles and dealer advertising spend.
