section_path: Statistics/Statistics for national retail sales/United States
section_name: United States
paragraph_text: United States
  
  The National Retail Federation and Kantar annually rank the nation's top retailers according to sales. The National Retail Federation also separately ranks the 100 fastest-growing U.S. retailers based on increases in domestic sales.
  
  Since 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau has published the Retail Sales report every month. It is a measure of consumer spending, an important indicator of the US GDP. Retail firms provide data on the dollar value of their retail sales and inventories. A sample of 12,000 firms is included in the final survey and 5,000 in the advanced one. The advanced estimated data is based on a subsample from the US CB complete retail and food services sample.
  
  Retail is the largest private-sector employer in the United States, supporting 52 million working Americans.