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

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

3 minute read 19 Feb 2025

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Real estate, hospitality and construction

US-headquartered, public-listed equity REIT portfolios included more than 580,000 properties at year-end 2023.

With a total footprint of 3.5 million US jobs that generate $277.8 billion in labor income, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a vital part of their communities and the US economy at large.

Ernst & Young LLP 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 and 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, 2023

Billions of dollars; thousands of full-time equivalent employees


	Direct	Indirect and induced	Total
Operations
Labor income	$31.1b	$83.1b	$114.3b
Employment	331	1,003	1,333
Dividend and interest payments
Labor income	$0.0	$31.8b	$31.8b
Employment	0	431	431
Construction
Labor income	$67.1b	$64.7b	$131.8b
Employment	950	831	1,781
Total
Labor income	$98.2b	$179.6b	$277.8b
Employment	1,280	2,265	3,545

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

Employment

The total economic contribution of US REITs and related businesses in 2023 was an estimated 3.5 million full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Labor income

REIT operations, dividend distributions and interest payments to investors, and construction activities contributed $277.8 billion in labor income to the US economy.

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 16.6% compound annual rate, from $9 billion to $1.37 trillion at the end of 2023.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

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Properties

US-headquartered, public-listed equity REIT portfolios included over 580,000 properties at year-end 2023, including:

More than 2,100 office buildings
More than 200 regional malls, over 2,600 shopping centers, more than 1,500 restaurant locations and in excess of 27,000 other retail properties
More than 8,600 industrial facilities
Over 3,100 multifamily rental properties, with over 800,000 units
More than 1,700 hotels
Approximately 8,400 medical facilities comprising nearly 2,800 medical office buildings, nearly 1,700 assisted living facilities, over 1,100 skilled nursing facilities and over 2,700 other health care facilities
Nearly 8,000 self-storage facilities
More than 250 data centers
Nearly 100,000 telecommunications towers
Approximately 200,000 single-family home rental properties
More than 207,000 billboards and outdoor advertising units
Approximately 15 million acres of timberland

REIT contribution to the economy 2024 map infographic

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.

Source: Nareit and EY analysis

This map illustrates the state distribution of the total economic contribution of all Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) operations, including dividend distributions, interest payments, and construction activities for the year 2023. The data is represented in thousands of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees across the United States, totaling 3,545 FTEs.

States are color-coded based on the number of FTE employees contributed by REITs:

Yellow (250-600 FTEs): California (562), Texas (316), and Virginia (276).
Dark Yellow (100-250 FTEs): Arizona (105), Florida (250), and New York (236).
Gray (50-100 FTEs): Nevada (61), Colorado (55), Maryland (58), Georgia (139), and others.
Light Gray (0-50 FTEs): Many states fall into this category, including Alaska (2), Wyoming (3), and North Dakota (5).

The map also includes a note stating that it does not account for the economic contributions of tenants in REIT-owned properties. The economic contributions are derived from the distribution of overall non-qualified dividend income and interest income, as reported by the Internal Revenue Service. Figures are rounded, and the source of the data is Nareit and EY analysis.

Summary

REITs and related companies provide employment and earnings for hundreds of thousands of employees and support jobs in other sectors of the economy that support REIT operations. Dividend distributions and interest payments by REITs to shareholders and bondholders contribute to consumer spending in the United States. Capital investments undertaken by REITs or related to new buildings purchased by REITs also support hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US economy.

About this article

EY Americas

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

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