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How REITs add millions of jobs and billions of dollars to US economy

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

3 minute read 19 Feb 2024

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Real estate, hospitality and construction

US-headquartered public listed equity REIT portfolios included over 575,000 properties.

With a total footprint of 3.4 million US jobs that generate $262.9 billion of labor income, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a vital part of their communities and the US economy at large.

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) was commissioned by Nareit to estimate the current economic contribution of REITs in the US.

The total economic contribution, or footprint, of REITs consists of the direct operations of REITs and related businesses in the United States, as well as the induced or indirect flows from dividend and interest payments by REITs and REIT property improvement and construction investments.

Total economic contribution of REITs in the United States, 2022

Billions of dollars; thousands of full-time equivalent employees


	Direct	Indirect and induced	Total
Operations
Labor income	$27.3b	$78.0b	$105.3b
Employment	331	995	1,325
Dividend and interest payments
Labor income	$0.0	$29.4b	$29.4b
Employment	0	398	398
Construction
Labor income	$63.0b	$65.2b	$128.2b
Employment	874	836	1,710
Total
Labor income	$90.3b	$172.6b	$262.9b
Employment	1,204	2,229	3,434

Note: Includes public listed, public non-listed, and private REITs. Operations exclude the economic contribution of REIT dividend distributions and REIT interest payments. The above table does not include the economic contribution of the tenants of REIT-owned properties. Figures are rounded.

Source: EY analysis

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Employment

The total economic contribution of US REITs and related businesses in 2021 was an estimated 3.2 million full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

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Labor income

REIT operations, dividend distributions and interest payments to investors, and construction activities contributed $262.9 billion in labor income to the US economy.

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Growth

REITs in the United States own $4 trillion of gross real estate assets. Publicly listed REITs have seen their combined equity market capitalization grow from the end of 1990 at an approximately 16.8% compound annual rate, from $9 billion to almost $1.27 trillion at the end of 2022.

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Properties

Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

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US-headquartered public listed equity REIT portfolios included over 575,000 properties at year-end 2022, including:

Nearly 2,300 office buildings
More than 200 regional malls; over 2,600 shopping centers; more than 1,500 restaurant locations; and nearly 28,000 other retail properties
More than 8,500 industrial facilities
Over 3,100 multifamily rental properties, with over 800,000 units
Nearly 1,700 hotels
Approximately 8,000 medical facilities comprising nearly 2,500 medical office buildings, nearly 2,100 assisted living facilities, over 1,000 skilled nursing facilities and over 2,400 other health care facilities
Nearly 7,500 self-storage facilities
More than 200 data centers
Nearly 100,000 telecommunications towers
Approximately 200,000 single-family-home rental properties
More than 205,000 billboards and outdoor advertising units
Approximately 15 million acres of timberland

ey-reits-contribute-to-the-us-economy

Note: Includes public listed, public non-listed, and private REITs. The above table does not include the economic contribution of the tenants of REIT-owned properties. The economic contribution of REITs is generally distributed to states (and the District of Columbia) based on REIT gross asset value by property type except for the contribution of REIT dividend payments, which is distributed based on the distribution of overall non-qualified dividend income as reported by the Internal Revenue Service. Figures are rounded.

Sources: Nareit and EY analysis.

This text refers to a map of the United States, illustrating the distribution of 3.4 million full-time employee jobs, including employment supported from REIT operations, dividend distributions, interest payments and construction activities supported by Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITs, in each state in the year 2022.
The colors on the map represent different job ranges: black represents 0 to 50,000 jobs, dark grey means 50,000 to 100,000 jobs, light grey indicates 100,000 to 250,000 jobs, and yellow shows 250,000 to 600,000 jobs.
The breakdown by state is as follows: Alabama has 34,000 REIT jobs, Alaska has 5,000, Arizona 108,000, Arkansas 23,000, California 526,000, Colorado 63,000, Connecticut 33,000, Delaware 5,000, District of Columbia 28,000, Florida 229,000, Georgia 139,000, Hawaii 24,000, Idaho 10,000, Illinois 157,000, Indiana 43,000, Iowa 10,000, Kansas 17,000, Kentucky 26,000, Louisiana 32,000, Maine 11,000, Maryland 61,000, Massachusetts 105,000, Michigan 43,000, Minnesota 35,000, Mississippi 30,000, Missouri 35,000, Montana 10,000, Nebraska 7,000, Nevada 74,000, New Hampshire 8,000, New Jersey 135,000, New Mexico 13,000, New York 251,000, North Carolina 79,000, North Dakota 9,000, Ohio 70,000, Oklahoma 23,000, Oregon 39,000, Pennsylvania 96,000, Rhode Island 7,000, South Carolina 36,000, South Dakota 8,000, Tennessee 51,000, Texas 293,000, Utah 25,000, Vermont 3,000, Virginia 249,000, Washington 6,000, West Virginia 12,000, Wisconsin 20,000, and Wyoming has 6,000 REIT jobs.
Please note, these figures, sourced from Nareit and EY analysis, include public listed, public non-listed, and private REITs and do not take into account the economic contribution from tenants of REIT-owned properties. These numbers might not be exact as they are rounded for simplicity.

Summary

With a total footprint of 3.4 million US jobs that generate $262.9 billion of labor income, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a vital part of their communities and the US economy at large.

About this article

EY Americas

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

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