BLS data show young workers concentrated in retail, reinforcing Dollar General's hiring pipeline

Young women ages 16 to 19 were more likely than young men to work in service occupations in 2025, 46.8 percent to 37.6 percent, a split that helps explain why retail still serves as one of the most common first jobs and why Dollar General’s hiring pipeline matters to early-career workers.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in July 2025, 17 percent of employed 16- to 24-year-olds worked in retail trade, while 25 percent worked in leisure and hospitality. Those are the kinds of jobs that teach customer service, stocking, cash handling, teamwork and the discipline of showing up for a schedule, skills that can matter as much as a paycheck in the first years of work.

Dollar General sits squarely inside that entry-level market. The company says it operates more than 20,000 retail locations, distribution centers, a private fleet and corporate offices, and it employed about 194,000 full-time and part-time workers as of February 27, 2026. In rural and suburban communities where Dollar General is often one of the few large employers with regular openings, that scale makes the chain a major first stop for teens and other new workers.

The company also presents those first jobs as the start of an internal ladder. Dollar General said nearly 74 percent of employees at or above the lead sales position were placed from within, and about 40 percent of internally placed store managers started as part-time sales associates. The company has also pointed to its Store Manager Ladder program, zero-cost college courses and degrees, tuition reimbursement and scholarships as part of the path from the sales floor to management.

For a young worker considering a job offer, that makes the interview more important than the application. The questions that matter are simple: how much onboarding will the store provide, how stable are the hours, and what does the path look like from cashier or sales associate to keyholder, assistant manager or store manager. A store that cannot explain the next step is offering a job, not a trajectory.

Training matters even more because Dollar General has already faced corporate-wide safety scrutiny. On July 11, 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a $12 million settlement that required nationwide changes, including additional safety managers, reduced inventory to keep exits clear, training for leadership and non-managerial employees, safety committees and anonymous reporting. That backdrop makes clear why a rushed start on the sales floor can create problems for both workers and stores.

BLS’s youth employment data show how common it is for first jobs to cluster in lower-barrier industries. Dollar General’s own promotion statistics show that, when the training is real and the hours are stable, those same jobs can become a feeder into longer careers. The difference between a temporary paycheck and a durable career path often begins with the first shift, the first coach and the first honest answer about advancement.