More Salons, Fewer Employees: Los Angeles County Beauty Salons, 2019 to 2025
From 2019 to 2025, the number of beauty salons with a payroll in Los Angeles County rose 20.0%, from 2,197 to 2,636, while the jobs at those salons fell 13.6%, from 9,141 to 7,898. The average salon went from 4.2 jobs to 3.0.
By Salon 11:11 · Published November 13, 2026 · Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau
Key numbers
- 2,636
- Beauty salons with at least one employee in Los Angeles County in 2025, up 20.0% from 2,197 in 2019
- BLS QCEW, NAICS 812112, private, annual averages 2019 and 2025
- 7,898
- Jobs at those salons in 2025, down 13.6% from 9,141 in 2019. All private jobs in the county fell 0.2% over the same years.
- BLS QCEW, NAICS 812112 and all industries, private, annual averages 2019 and 2025
- 3.0
- Average jobs per salon in 2025, down from 4.2 in 2019
- Our calculation from BLS QCEW (jobs divided by establishments)
- 191
- Salons with 10 or more employees in 2023, 26.5% fewer than the 260 of 2019
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2019 and 2023, NAICS 812112
- 26,449
- Beauty salon businesses with no employees in 2024, close to the 26,637 of 2019 (0.7% fewer): about 10 for every salon with a payroll
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2019 and 2024, NAICS 812112; ratio uses NES 2024 and BLS QCEW 2024 salons with a payroll
Are more Los Angeles County stylists working on their own instead of in bigger salons?
Partly. The salons that employ people have become smaller: there are more of them, they employ fewer people in total, and fewer have 10 or more employees. But the number of salon businesses with no employees at all, which is where most self-employed stylists who rent a booth or a suite are counted, was about the same in 2024 as in 2019. The data show salons getting smaller. They do not show a surge in solo businesses, and they cannot show why.
Salons with a payroll: more of them, fewer jobs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts every business location that pays wages covered by unemployment insurance. In Los Angeles County, private beauty salons with a payroll averaged 2,197 locations in 2019 and 2,636 in 2025, 439 more. Over the same years the jobs at those salons fell from 9,141 to 7,898, 1,243 fewer.
That fall is not the county's job market as a whole. All private jobs in Los Angeles County went from 3,934,240 in 2019 to 3,927,366 in 2025, 0.2% fewer, so salon jobs fell much faster than jobs overall.
The chart sets both counts to 100 in 2019. Salon jobs dropped to 5,572 in 2020, when salons were closed for months, recovered to 8,271 in 2023, the highest since 2019, eased to 8,254 in 2024 and fell to 7,898 in 2025, still below 2019. The number of salons rose every year except 2021.
Index, 2019 = 100. Source: BLS QCEW, Los Angeles County, NAICS 812112 Beauty Salons, private ownership, annual averages. The 2020 drop in jobs reflects pandemic closures.
| Year | Salons with a payroll | Salon jobs | Jobs per salon | Average annual pay | Salons with no employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,197 | 9,141 | 4.2 | $30,142 | 26,637 |
| 2020 | 2,262 | 5,572 | 2.5 | $33,387 | 24,365 |
| 2021 | 2,214 | 6,647 | 3.0 | $38,576 | 24,277 |
| 2022 | 2,343 | 8,027 | 3.4 | $39,065 | 25,905 |
| 2023 | 2,530 | 8,271 | 3.3 | $39,602 | 26,276 |
| 2024 | 2,598 | 8,254 | 3.2 | $39,576 | 26,449 |
| 2025 | 2,636 | 7,898 | 3.0 | $39,426 | Not yet released |
Salons, jobs and pay: BLS QCEW annual averages. Salons with no employees: Census Nonemployer Statistics (2025 not yet released).
Fewer large salons
The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns sorts employer salons by how many people they employed in mid-March. In 2019, 1,692 of 2,272 Los Angeles County beauty salons (74.5%) had fewer than five employees. In 2023, the latest year, 2,070 of 2,656 did (77.9%).
At the other end, salons with 10 or more employees went from 260 to 191, 26.5% fewer. County Business Patterns is a Census Bureau count built from different records than the BLS figures, so its totals differ slightly.
| Year | All | Fewer than 5 | 5 to 9 | 10 or more | Share under 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,272 | 1,692 | 320 | 260 | 74.5% |
| 2023 | 2,656 | 2,070 | 395 | 191 | 77.9% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, NAICS 812112, mid-March employment.
Salon businesses with no employees
Most self-employed stylists, including many who rent a booth or a private suite, file taxes as a business with no payroll. The Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics count those businesses. In Los Angeles County there were 26,637 nonemployer beauty salons in 2019, a low of 24,277 in 2021, and 26,449 in 2024, the latest year. That is 0.7% fewer than in 2019, and about 10 for every salon with a payroll.
The county did not follow the national trend. Across California the count rose 0.4% from 2019 to 2024 (92,798 to 93,181), and across the United States it rose 14.4% (757,926 to 867,242).
Together these businesses reported $919.5 million in receipts in 2024, an average of $34,763 each, against $30,792 in 2019. Receipts are sales before expenses such as rent and products, not take-home pay, and they are not adjusted for inflation.
| Year | Businesses | Total receipts | Receipts per business |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 26,637 | $820.2 million | $30,792 |
| 2020 | 24,365 | $453.5 million | $18,612 |
| 2021 | 24,277 | $666.7 million | $27,464 |
| 2022 | 25,905 | $854.1 million | $32,971 |
| 2023 | 26,276 | $889.8 million | $33,865 |
| 2024 | 26,449 | $919.5 million | $34,763 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics, NAICS 812112. Receipts in current dollars.
Los Angeles County, California and the U.S.
The number of salons with a payroll grew faster in Los Angeles County (20.0%) than in California (11.4%) or the United States (4.1%) from 2019 to 2025. Salon jobs fell in all three: 13.6% in the county, 18.5% statewide and 14.2% nationwide.
| Area | Salons | Change | Jobs | Change | Jobs per salon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County | 2,197 → 2,636 | +20.0% | 9,141 → 7,898 | −13.6% | 4.2 → 3.0 |
| California | 7,632 → 8,502 | +11.4% | 37,168 → 30,275 | −18.5% | 4.9 → 3.6 |
| United States | 74,418 → 77,449 | +4.1% | 421,585 → 361,683 | −14.2% | 5.7 → 4.7 |
Source: BLS QCEW, NAICS 812112, private ownership, annual averages 2019 and 2025.
Pay per salon job
Average annual pay per salon job in the county rose from $30,142 in 2019 to $39,426 in 2025, 30.8% more, not adjusted for inflation. Most of that rise came by 2022 ($39,065); since then it has been close to flat. Average annual pay is total wages divided by average jobs, so it mixes part-time and full-time jobs and is not an hourly wage. It does not include self-employed stylists.
What this means if you are choosing a salon
- A small salon is the usual salon here. In 2023, 77.9% of Los Angeles County salons with a payroll had fewer than five employees, and in 2024 there were about 10 no-employee salon businesses for every salon with staff. Solo stylists are a common part of the county's salon business, not an unusual one; these sources cannot say how many work from a suite.
- These numbers do not rank salons. They count businesses and jobs, not quality. A large salon and a solo stylist can both do excellent work. Choose on the consultation, the portfolio and whether the stylist listens.
- Ask how a small business handles the details. When one stylist runs the whole business, the same person usually handles your consultation, your appointment and any follow-up. It is reasonable to ask how booking, cancellations and touch-ups work before you start. If you are weighing the two set-ups, our guide compares a private suite and a full-service salon.
- The data cannot say why. Rent, taxes, licensing and stylists' own choices could all play a part, but none of these sources records reasons. Treat any single explanation, including ours, with care.
Method
- Salons with a payroll come from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Los Angeles County (FIPS 06037), private ownership, NAICS 812112 Beauty Salons, annual averages for each year from 2019 to 2025 (2025 is the latest year). Establishments are business locations with employees covered by unemployment insurance; jobs are the annual average of monthly employment; average annual pay is total wages divided by average jobs. Jobs per salon is our calculation (jobs divided by establishments).
- Salon size comes from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP), NAICS 812112, Los Angeles County, 2019 and 2023 (the latest year), employment-size classes based on the pay period including March 12. "10 or more employees" is all establishments minus those with fewer than five and those with five to nine; in each year one of them is in a larger size class whose count the Census Bureau does not publish.
- Salon businesses with no employees come from the Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics (NES), NAICS 812112, Los Angeles County, 2019 to 2024 (the latest year): the number of nonemployer businesses (NESTAB) and their receipts (NRCPTOT). Nonemployers are businesses with no paid employees and at least $1,000 in annual receipts that are subject to federal income tax; most are sole proprietors.
- Independent check. Each headline figure was read again from a second file: the QCEW industry file for NAICS 812112 (the build reads the county file), the NES county flat files (the build reads the Census API), and the CBP county flat files (the build reads the API). All matched.
Limits
- NAICS 812112 covers beauty salons in general: hair salons, plus businesses that mainly do facials or makeup. Hair salons cannot be counted on their own. Barber shops (812111) and nail salons (812113) are separate categories and are not included.
- No federal source counts salon suites. The nonemployer count includes stylists who rent a booth or a suite, work from home or travel to clients, and it cannot tell them apart.
- A stylist who has formed a company and pays herself a salary is counted as a salon with a payroll, not as a nonemployer, so some one-person businesses sit on the employer side of these figures.
- The latest years differ by source: 2025 for QCEW, 2024 for Nonemployer Statistics and 2023 for County Business Patterns. QCEW and CBP also count slightly differently (for 2019, QCEW averages 2,197 salons and CBP counts 2,272).
- 2020 and 2021 were shaped by pandemic closures. Pay and receipts are not adjusted for inflation. BLS and the Census Bureau can revise recent figures.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), county data files ↗ (Annual averages, 2019 to 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics (NES) ↗ (2019 to 2024)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) ↗ (2019 and 2023)
- U.S. Census Bureau, NAICS 812112 Beauty Salons definition ↗ (2022 NAICS)
Cite this study
Salon 11:11 (2026). More Salons, Fewer Employees: Los Angeles County Beauty Salons, 2019 to 2025. https://justicesalon1111.com/research/la-county-salon-sizes
Download the data: la-county-salon-sizes.csv (CSV). You may reuse the tables and chart with credit to Salon 11:11 and a link to this page, under CC BY 4.0.