Auto repair is measured through several overlapping lenses: the broad U.S. repair-and-maintenance subsector, automotive occupations across industries, workplace safety, and modeled vehicle ownership costs. The figures below make those definitions and measurement periods explicit.
Key Auto Repair Industry Statistics
The most useful headline figures include:
- In August 2026, 1,478.3 thousand people were employed in U.S. repair and maintenance (NAICS 811) on a seasonally adjusted basis.
- In the first quarter of 2026, 249,269 private-industry establishments operated in U.S. repair and maintenance (NAICS 811).
- In July 2026, repair-and-maintenance production and nonsupervisory employment totaled 1,180.3 thousand in the United States.
- In May 2024, 688,840 automotive service technicians and mechanics were employed nationally across industries.
- In May 2024, 155,220 automotive body and related repairers were employed in the United States.
- In May 2024, 106,620 tire repairers and changers were employed nationally.
- In May 2024, automotive technicians and repairers totaled 863,000 people in the U.S. occupation group.
- In May 2024, automotive service technicians and mechanics had a $23.88 mean hourly wage and $49,670 mean annual wage in the United States.
- In May 2024, automotive body and related repairers had a $24.85 mean hourly wage and $58,830 mean annual wage nationally.
- In 2025, automotive service technicians and mechanics had a $23.27 median hourly wage and $48,390 median annual wage in the U.S. industry-profile table.
- In 2024, repair-and-maintenance workplaces recorded 148 fatal occupational injuries in the United States.
- In 2024, the total recordable injury-and-illness rate was 2.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in U.S. repair and maintenance.
- In 2024, cases involving days away, job restriction or transfer occurred at a rate of 1.3 per 100 full-time workers in the subsector.
- In 2024, AAA estimated average new-car ownership and operating costs at $12,297 per year for selected U.S. vehicles over five years and 75,000 miles.
- In AAA’s 2024 model, maintenance, repair and tires represented 10.13 cents per mile for the selected vehicles.
- In 2024, AAA’s modeled total ownership cost was 84.69 cents per mile for electric vehicles in its selected-category comparison.
Contents
- Employment and business scale
- Technician workforce
- Wages and pay
- Workplace safety
- Ownership, maintenance and repair costs
- Vehicle category cost measures
Auto Repair Industry Employment and Business Scale
BLS’s Repair and Maintenance: NAICS 811 profile measures a broad subsector that includes automotive and nonautomotive repair. Its monthly employment and establishment figures are therefore useful for industry scale, but they should not be read as automotive-only counts.
| Measure | Period | U.S. figure |
|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted repair-and-maintenance employment | August 2026 | 1,478.3 thousand |
| Production and nonsupervisory employment | July 2026 | 1,180.3 thousand |
| Private-industry establishments | Q1 2026 | 249,269 |
| Average hourly earnings, all employees | July 2026 | $32.45 |
| Average weekly hours, all employees | July 2026 | 37.4 |
| Average hourly earnings, production and nonsupervisory employees | July 2026 | $29.67 |
The Q1 2026 private-establishment count is a preliminary QCEW measure, while the monthly employment, pay and hours figures are preliminary monthly industry estimates. The subsector also recorded 599 local-government establishments in each of Q2, Q3 and Q4 2025, 25 state-government establishments in each quarter, and 41 federal-government establishments in each quarter; these government counts are not automotive-only.
Automotive Technician and Repairer Workforce Statistics
Occupation data provide a more automotive-specific view, although the occupations can be employed by dealerships, manufacturers, insurers, fleets and other industries rather than only independent repair shops. BLS’s archived Occupational Employment and Wages—May 2024 release reports the following national estimates.
| Occupation or group | Period | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Automotive service technicians and mechanics | May 2024 | 688,840 |
| Automotive body and related repairers | May 2024 | 155,220 |
| Tire repairers and changers | May 2024 | 106,620 |
| Automotive glass installers and repairers | May 2024 | 18,940 |
| Automotive technicians and repairers group | May 2024 | 863,000 |
| Motor-vehicle electronic equipment installers and repairers | May 2024 | 10,140 |
The wider vehicle-and-mobile-equipment mechanics, installers and repairers group numbered 1,732,480 in May 2024, but it includes aircraft, farm, rail, marine and other nonautomotive work. First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers numbered 600,680, while recreational vehicle service technicians numbered 18,710; both figures extend beyond ordinary passenger-vehicle repair.
BLS’s 2025 repair-and-maintenance industry profile separately lists 109,530 automotive body and related repairers. That industry-profile figure has a different scope from the all-industry May 2024 OEWS estimate and should not be treated as a direct time-series comparison.
Auto Repair Wages and Occupational Pay Data
Pay varies by occupation and by whether a measure is a mean or median. The May 2024 figures below are national occupation-wide means, and the annual amounts are not guaranteed salaries.
| Occupation or group | Mean hourly wage, May 2024 | Mean annual wage, May 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Automotive service technicians and mechanics | $23.88 | $49,670 |
| Automotive body and related repairers | $24.85 | $58,830 |
| Automotive glass installers and repairers | $22.72 | $49,580 |
| Tire repairers and changers | $17.85 | $39,140 |
| Automotive technicians and repairers group | $26.82 | $55,780 |
The same BLS release lists a second automotive service-technician measure of $26.57 mean hourly pay and $55,260 mean annual pay, reflecting a distinct occupation entry in the release. For 2025, BLS’s industry-profile table reports median pay of $26.30 per hour and $54,710 per year for automotive body and related repairers, and $23.27 per hour and $48,390 per year for automotive service technicians and mechanics.
The 2025 median for first-line supervisors and managers of mechanics, installers and repairers was $35.47 per hour and $73,780 per year. That supervisory occupation spans repair industries beyond automotive, so it is a labor-market reference rather than an automotive-shop-only wage.
Auto Repair Workplace Safety Statistics and Labor Conditions
BLS reports safety outcomes for the broader repair-and-maintenance subsector. In 2024, workplaces recorded 148 fatal occupational injuries, compared with 145 in 2023; BLS notes a series break beginning with 2023 because of the NAICS 2022 classification, so earlier comparisons require qualification.
| 2024 safety measure | Rate or count |
|---|---|
| Fatal occupational injuries | 148 |
| Total recordable injury-and-illness cases | 2.0 per 100 full-time workers |
| Cases involving days away, restriction or transfer | 1.3 per 100 full-time workers |
| Cases involving days away from work | 0.9 per 100 full-time workers |
| Cases involving job transfer or restriction | 0.4 per 100 full-time workers |
BLS also estimated repair-and-maintenance employment at 1,169.2 thousand in May 2026 and 1,468.9 thousand in June 2026. The repair-and-maintenance unemployment rate was 4.5% in June 2026 and 3.8% in July 2026 among workers previously employed in the industry; this is a household-survey measure, not a jobless rate for automotive establishments alone.
Vehicle Ownership, Maintenance and Repair Cost Statistics
AAA’s Your Driving Costs 2024 is a modeled estimate, not a collection of repair-shop invoices. It covers five top-selling models in each of nine vehicle categories, standardized over five years and 75,000 miles, with actual costs varying by driver, location and conditions.
AAA estimated average new-car ownership and operating cost at $12,297 per year in 2024, based on study vehicles with an average sales-weighted MSRP of $38,883. The model presented average ownership cost at $1.06 per mile for 10,000 miles per year, $0.82 per mile for 15,000 miles, and $0.70 per mile for 20,000 miles.
The maintenance, repair and tires component represented 10.13 cents per mile. AAA’s model also estimated annual depreciation at $4,680, annual financing cost at $1,332, and annual insurance cost at $1,715; financing assumed a five-year loan, 15% down and a national-average interest rate, while insurance assumed full coverage and a specified experienced, claim-free driver profile.
These figures place repair-related spending inside a larger ownership-cost framework. They should not be interpreted as the average amount a consumer pays an auto repair business in a year.
Auto Repair Service Categories and Vehicle Cost Measures
AAA’s 2024 category results show how modeled total ownership costs differed across selected vehicle types. The figures are total ownership cost per mile, not repair-only cost.
| Vehicle category | AAA 2024 modeled total ownership cost |
|---|---|
| Small sedan | 59.24 cents per mile |
| Hybrid | 66.07 cents per mile |
| Subcompact SUV | 67.51 cents per mile |
| Medium sedan | 70.38 cents per mile |
| Compact SUV | 71.04 cents per mile |
| Mid-size pickup | 82.44 cents per mile |
| Medium SUV | 83.84 cents per mile |
| Electric vehicle | 84.69 cents per mile |
| Half-ton pickup | $1.10 per mile |
AAA reported that electric vehicles had the lowest maintenance, repair and tire costs in its comparison, even though their modeled total ownership cost was 84.69 cents per mile for the selected EV sample. Because depreciation, financing, insurance and other components are included in total ownership cost, that figure cannot be used alone to rank repair-shop demand or repair prices.
The broader BLS and AAA measures answer different questions: BLS describes employment, establishments, pay and safety in defined U.S. labor and industry classifications, while AAA models the cost of owning selected new vehicles. Reading them together gives a broader view of the auto repair economy without treating a subsector estimate, an occupation count and a vehicle-cost model as interchangeable.