Party businesses sit at the intersection of event services, floral design, gift retail, food and accommodation, and online commerce. The available figures show a large event-planning occupation, a smaller but geographically varied floral workforce, and a long shift from many traditional specialty stores toward electronic shopping. The dates matter: the newest occupation outlook figures describe 2024–2034, while several retail comparisons measure changes from 2001 to 2014 or report 2009 and 2022–2025 snapshots.
Contents
- Event planning at a glance
- Where event planners work and what they earn
- Floral design jobs and outlook
- Floral design by state and metro area
- Retail categories connected to parties
- The long shift from stores to electronic shopping
- Recent miscellaneous-retail employment and pay
Event planning at a glance
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported about 155,800 jobs for meeting, convention, and event planners in 2024. This is one of the clearest labor-market measures related to parties and celebrations, although the occupation also includes business meetings, conventions, and other events rather than private parties alone. The occupation typically requires a bachelor’s degree, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH).
The BLS projects 5% employment growth for meeting, convention, and event planners from 2024 to 2034. Over that decade, about 15,500 openings are projected each year. Annual openings can include opportunities created by people leaving the occupation as well as newly created jobs, so the openings figure should not be read as the same thing as projected net growth.
Pay ranged widely in May 2024. The median annual wage was $59,440. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $35,990, while the highest-paid 10% earned more than $101,310. These are national occupation figures from the BLS OOH, not a price list for party-planning services and not a direct measure of business revenue.
Where event planners work and what they earn
Event-planning work is spread across organizations with different event needs. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations were the largest employer group in the BLS OOH breakdown, accounting for 16% of meeting, convention, and event planners. Accommodation and food services accounted for 12%, and arts, entertainment, and recreation accounted for another 12%. Administrative and support services accounted for 10%, while self-employed workers accounted for 5%.
The wage picture also differs by industry. The BLS OOH reported these median annual wages for meeting, convention, and event planners in May 2024:
| Industry or work setting | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations | $60,940 |
| Administrative and support services | $60,510 |
| Accommodation and food services | $57,400 |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | $49,760 |
The figures place party-adjacent work inside a broader service economy. A planner working with an arts or recreation organization is represented by a different industry wage than a planner working for an administrative-support business, even when the practical work includes organizing vendors, schedules, guests, and venues. The BLS labels and measurement period should therefore stay attached to each comparison.
For someone considering party planning as a career, the combination of a 5% projected growth rate and approximately 15,500 annual openings suggests continuing demand across multiple settings. The occupation’s educational expectation, however, is also important: the BLS says meeting, convention, and event planners typically need a bachelor’s degree. The data describes employment prospects, not a guarantee that every independent party business will have the same staffing or revenue pattern.
Floral design jobs and outlook
Floral design is another party-related occupation because flowers can be central to birthdays, weddings, showers, graduations, and other celebrations. The BLS OOH counted 43,800 floral designer jobs in 2024 and projected 41,200 jobs in 2034. That corresponds to a projected 6% decline in employment from 2024 to 2034. Even with that decline, the BLS projected about 5,100 openings for floral designers each year over the decade.
The May 2024 wage distribution was narrower than the event-planner distribution. Floral designers had a median annual wage of $36,120. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $27,260, and the highest-paid 10% earned more than $48,690. These figures cover the occupation nationally and do not isolate party or wedding specialists.
Industry setting affected floral-design pay. In the BLS OOH figures, grocery and specialty food retailers paid floral designers a median annual wage of $37,010. Florists paid a median of $35,890. Lawn and garden equipment and supplies retailers paid $35,360, while wholesale trade paid $34,950. The highest of these listed medians was therefore $37,010, and the lowest was $34,950; the difference describes the reported industry medians, not an individual worker’s likely raise or business margin.
The contrast between event planning and floral design is useful for interpreting party-industry data. Event planning had 155,800 jobs and a 5% projected growth rate for 2024–2034, while floral design had 43,800 jobs in 2024 and a projected 6% decline. Both occupations still had projected annual openings, but their employment outlooks moved in different directions.
Floral design by state and metro area
The BLS Floral Designers OES figures provide a May 2022 state snapshot. California employed 4,320 floral designers, followed by Texas with 2,860, Illinois with 2,570, New York with 2,450, and Florida with 2,330. Missouri employed 1,870 and Utah employed 1,020. Smaller reported totals included Idaho at 390, South Dakota at 200, and Vermont at 150.
Those counts describe employment totals, not market share or the number of florists. They also come from May 2022, so they should not be merged with the 2024 national outlook without retaining the different measurement dates.
The same BLS OES source reported mean annual wages of $45,440 for floral designers in Alaska, $42,620 in Massachusetts, $42,420 in Connecticut, $42,140 in the District of Columbia, and $42,100 in Colorado. These are mean wages from the May 2022 state data, whereas the BLS OOH figures above use May 2024 median wages; mean and median are different measures.
At the metropolitan-area level, New York-Newark-Jersey City employed 2,300 floral designers, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin employed 1,880, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim employed 1,380, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington employed 850, according to the BLS Floral Designers OES data. The reported concentrations show how party-related floral work can cluster in large population centers while also appearing in smaller communities.
Several smaller metropolitan areas had high location quotients in the same BLS OES snapshot. Niles-Benton Harbor employed 50 floral designers and had a location quotient of 3.25. Provo-Orem employed 240 and had a location quotient of 2.96. Athens-Clarke County employed 70 and had a location quotient of 2.88. Bremerton-Silverdale employed 70 and had a location quotient of 2.82, while Jefferson City employed 60 and had a location quotient of 2.69. A location quotient compares an area’s concentration with the national concentration; it is not the same as a large absolute job count.
Retail categories connected to parties
Party activity also touches gift, hobby, jewelry, book, sporting-goods, and department-store retail. Census holiday facts counted 27,738 gift, novelty, and souvenir shops in 2009. The same 2009 figures counted 8,663 department stores, 8,424 hobby, toy, and game shops, 21,628 sporting-goods stores, 24,973 jewelry stores, and 9,390 book stores in the United States.
These are historical establishment counts from 2009. They can help describe the retail landscape at that time, but they are not current counts and should not be presented as a present-day total for party retailers.
The BLS gift-related-retailer comparison measured changes between 2001 and 2014. The number of florist shops fell 41% during that period, while the number of gift, novelty, and souvenir stores fell 38%. Jewelry stores decreased 21%, mail-order houses declined 13%, and confectionery and nut stores declined 13%. In contrast, beer, wine, and liquor stores increased 18%, and electronic shopping establishments increased 373%.
The employment changes in that same BLS comparison were also substantial. Employment at florist shops fell 50% between 2001 and 2014, and employment at gift, novelty, and souvenir stores fell 37%. Mail-order-house employment decreased 23%, jewelry-store employment decreased 23%, and confectionery-and-nut-store employment fell 15%. Employment at beer, wine, and liquor stores rose 5%, while employment at electronic shopping establishments increased 226%.
The long shift from stores to electronic shopping
The underlying employment counts make the 2001–2014 comparison more concrete. In 2001, electronic shopping employed 53,115 workers among the gift-related retailers covered by the BLS comparison. Mail-order houses employed 182,245, gift, novelty, and souvenir stores employed 259,705, beer, wine, and liquor stores employed 140,893, jewelry stores employed 158,138, florists employed 124,634, and confectionery and nut stores employed 24,699.
By 2014, electronic shopping employed 172,935 workers in that comparison. Mail-order houses employed 140,262, gift, novelty, and souvenir stores employed 163,161, beer, wine, and liquor stores employed 147,825, jewelry stores employed 121,729, florists employed 62,202, and confectionery and nut stores employed 21,055.
| Gift-related retail category | 2001 employment | 2014 employment | Reported change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic shopping | 53,115 | 172,935 | +226% |
| Mail-order houses | 182,245 | 140,262 | -23% |
| Gift, novelty, and souvenir stores | 259,705 | 163,161 | -37% |
| Florists | 124,634 | 62,202 | -50% |
| Jewelry stores | 158,138 | 121,729 | -23% |
| Beer, wine, and liquor stores | 140,893 | 147,825 | +5% |
| Confectionery and nut stores | 24,699 | 21,055 | -15% |
The pattern is descriptive rather than predictive. It shows that electronic shopping grew strongly in the historical period covered, while several physical specialty categories had fewer establishments or workers. It does not establish what happened after 2014 or forecast the next phase of party retail.
Recent miscellaneous-retail employment and pay
BLS industry data offers a more recent, broader view through miscellaneous store retailers. The category employed 861.1 thousand all employees in September 2022, 864.4 thousand in October, 862.4 thousand in November, and 869.2 thousand in December. These monthly figures may be useful when thinking about seasonal retail activity, but the category is broader than party stores and should not be treated as a party-industry headcount.
The BLS General Merchandise Stores page reported average hourly earnings for miscellaneous store retailers of $23.06 in March 2025, $23.02 in April, $23.37 in May, and $23.66 in June. Average weekly hours were 26.2 in March, 26.0 in April, 26.2 in May, and 27.4 in June.
For production and nonsupervisory employees in general merchandise stores, the reported average hourly earnings were $18.24 in March 2025, $18.28 in April, $18.34 in May, and $18.45 in June. This employee group and the miscellaneous-store category are not identical, so their figures should be kept separate.
Together, the recent BLS monthly measures show a retail workforce with reported changes in both hourly earnings and weekly hours across spring and early summer 2025. They provide context for the broader retail environment in which party supplies, gifts, decorations, and celebration-related products may be sold, without claiming that every dollar or job in the category comes from party demand.