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The decade America’s laundry industry shrank

Commercial laundry employment and business counts in every US state, ten years apart, showing where the industry contracted hardest.

Amara BelkaidAPXXO Data — industry
Data as at
2025
Last checked
2026-09-16
Measured in
% change in laundry jobs, 2015–2025
Rows
47
Download CSVDownload PDF

Key findings

-35.6%
Consumer drycleaning, nationally

136,813 jobs in 2015 down to 88,162 in 2025.

+10.1%
Industrial launderers, over the same decade

The commercial end of the industry grew while the high-street end collapsed.

43 of 47
States where laundry employment fell

It rose in 3. Overall the 47 states shown changed by -14.0%.

At a glance

Top 12 of 47

The twelve steepest falls in laundry employment. Where the two bars differ, jobs and operators moved at different rates — which is consolidation rather than plain contraction.

−44.5%−33.4%−22.3%−11.1%0.0%Mississippi−44.5%−23.6%Rhode Island−28.7%−10.1%West Virginia−26.5%−34.3%Minnesota−23.5%−21.1%Kentucky−23.2%−22.8%New Hampshire−22.9%−24.0%Alabama−22.5%−15.6%Pennsylvania−22.2%−23.9%Virginia−21.4%−24.1%Wisconsin−21.0%−21.9%North Dakota−19.9%−15.7%Arkansas−19.4%−30.6%

On the map

47 of 47 shown

Change in laundry employment over the decade. Red is where the industry contracted; green is where it grew.

MS−44.5%RI−28.7%WV−26.5%MN−23.5%KY−23.2%NH−22.9%AL−22.5%PA−22.2%VA−21.4%WI−21.0%ND−19.9%AR−19.4%GA−18.9%LA−18.7%MI−18.5%NY−17.7%IL−17.3%IA−16.9%OK−16.9%SC−15.0%MO−14.6%CT−14.6%OH−14.0%TN−14.0%HI−13.7%KS−13.1%FL−12.8%NV−12.5%MA−12.3%NM−11.1%CA−10.9%NE−10.2%OR−9.6%IN−9.4%TX−9.3%NC−9.0%MD−8.3%CO−7.5%AZ−6.0%WA−5.9%UT−5.7%DE−5.5%NJ−2.7%SD0.0%MT+4.2%ME+7.6%ID+29.5%

Scale−44.5%+29.5%Every tile carries its own figure, so the map reads without the colour.

How they spread out

Each bar counts how many of the 47 states fall in that band. Where the two distributions sit apart, capacity and ownership moved at different speeds.

CHANGE IN JOBSlow −44.5%high +29.5%-0.66× from end to endCHANGE IN BUSINESSESlow −36.8%high +28.7%-0.78× from end to end

What the figures show

The industry did not shrink so much as move (link to this section)

Taken as a whole, laundry employment across the 47 states shown changed by -14.0% between 2015 and 2025. That single figure hides the only thing on this page worth knowing.

Split into its parts, the sub-sectors went in opposite directions: Coin-operated laundries +13.1%; Industrial launderers +10.1%; Linen supply -6.2%; Drycleaning and laundry services -35.6%.

The high-street drycleaner lost 35.6% of its jobs. The industrial launderers who wash for hotels and hospitals gained 10.1%. Work has moved from the shop on the corner to commercial contracts, and the aggregate hides it completely. Our cost index tracks the consumer end nationally, which is why its workforce line falls so much faster than this page's.

Consumer drycleaning -36%. Industrial laundering +10%. The industry did not shrink — it changed who it works for.

Where the capacity went (link to this section)

Employment fell in 43 states and rose in 3. The steepest fall is Mississippi at -44.5%, alongside a -23.6% change in the number of operators.

At the other end, Idaho gained 29.5%. A state losing a third of its laundry employment has not stopped needing laundry; the linen travels further, or it is washed on site by people whose job is something else. Where that demand sits now is the companion to this page.

Jobs and operators do not move together (link to this section)

The two columns are shown side by side because they can diverge, and the divergence is the interesting part. A state that keeps its employment while losing operators has consolidated: the same work, done by fewer, larger businesses. A state losing both has lost capacity outright.

For anyone buying laundry as a service, those are different problems. Consolidation means fewer suppliers to negotiate with. Lost capacity means the nearest plant is further away, which shows up as logistics rather than as price.

What this is useful for, and what it is not (link to this section)

A ten-year window spans the pandemic, which closed hotels and the laundries serving them. Some of the fall between 2015 and 2025 is that shock rather than a settled trend, and the two cannot be separated from these figures alone.

4 states are missing because BLS withheld a figure in at least one of the two years to protect employer confidentiality. QCEW counts jobs rather than people, and a hotel that launders its own linen is counted under accommodation, not here.

A state that lost a third of its laundries still generates the same dirty linen. It has simply lost the places that used to wash it.

How we worked this out

Both years are annual averages from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for NAICS 8123, drycleaning and laundry services, private ownership, at state level. QCEW counts every establishment covered by unemployment insurance, so this is a census rather than a survey.

Across the 47 states shown, laundry employment changed by -14.0% between 2015 and 2025. It fell in 43 states and rose in 3.

The headline figure is the change in jobs. The change in the number of businesses is shown alongside it, because the two can move apart: a state can keep its capacity while losing operators, which is consolidation rather than contraction.

The aggregate hides the real movement, so the sub-sectors are worth stating. Nationally over the same ten years: Coin-operated laundries +13.1%; Industrial launderers +10.1%; Linen supply -6.2%; Drycleaning and laundry services, except coin-operated -35.6%.

In other words the industry has not simply shrunk - it has moved. Consumer drycleaning lost 35.6% of its jobs while industrial laundering gained 10.1%. Work has shifted from the high street to commercial contracts.

This also explains an apparent contradiction with our cost index page, which reports the laundry workforce falling much faster. That figure covers NAICS 812320 alone, the consumer sub-sector, which is the part that collapsed. This page covers all of NAICS 8123.

4 states are not shown because BLS withheld a figure in at least one of the two years to protect employer confidentiality: District of Columbia, Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska.

A ten-year comparison spans the pandemic, which closed hotels and the laundries serving them. Some of the fall between 2015 and 2025 is that shock rather than a settled trend.

The numbers

47 rows · as at 2025

47 rows

The decade America’s laundry industry shrank
Region% change in laundry jobs, 2015–2025Change in businesses (%)Jobs 2015Jobs 2025Businesses 2015Businesses 2025
Mississippi−44.5%−23.6%3,3201,844259198
Rhode Island−28.7%−10.1%1,6721,192168151
West Virginia−26.5%−34.3%1,00273610569
Minnesota−23.5%−21.1%4,9603,796375296
Kentucky−23.2%−22.8%3,6802,825347268
New Hampshire−22.9%−24.0%1,7661,362150114
Alabama−22.5%−15.6%4,7033,644391330
Pennsylvania−22.2%−23.9%10,1737,9121,118851
Virginia−21.4%−24.1%8,7396,873995755
Wisconsin−21.0%−21.9%5,3564,233374292
North Dakota−19.9%−15.7%7245805143
Arkansas−19.4%−30.6%2,3971,931242168
Georgia−18.9%−22.7%8,7167,0661,245962
Louisiana−18.7%−16.3%4,4283,599392328
Michigan−18.5%−18.5%8,4126,854859700
New York−17.7%−20.2%23,70819,5064,8413,864
Illinois−17.3%−36.8%11,6479,6361,578997
Iowa−16.9%−32.7%2,0051,667217146
Oklahoma−16.9%−12.4%3,7163,088315276
South Carolina−15.0%−16.9%4,6993,995402334
Missouri−14.6%−20.3%5,3464,564508405
Connecticut−14.6%−24.0%4,2193,603533405
Ohio−14.0%−24.2%11,2609,686914693
Tennessee−14.0%−20.7%5,2494,515459364
Hawaii−13.7%−3.8%2,0311,7537976
Kansas−13.1%−20.4%2,3222,018186148
Florida−12.8%−14.5%19,20616,7482,0511,754
Nevada−12.5%−12.0%4,9914,368274241
Massachusetts−12.3%−25.6%8,0377,0471,006748
New Mexico−11.1%−19.8%1,7521,558172138
California−10.9%−13.7%34,37130,6233,8753,344
Nebraska−10.2%−31.5%1,6771,506149102
Oregon−9.6%−15.8%2,8492,576266224
Indiana−9.4%−22.6%5,9895,424530410
Texas−9.3%−14.1%27,18324,6622,6572,282
North Carolina−9.0%−20.5%8,9208,113918730
Maryland−8.3%−20.1%5,6235,154766612
Colorado−7.5%−23.2%4,7224,370555426
Arizona−6.0%−16.6%5,4605,132373311
Washington−5.9%−29.6%4,4114,152577406
Utah−5.7%−12.6%2,3142,183183160
Delaware−5.5%−1.0%8628159796
New Jersey−2.7%−16.7%10,60110,3111,6671,389
South Dakota0.0%0.0%5155155151
Montana+4.2%−15.1%6947237362
Maine+7.6%−17.4%84190511595
Idaho+29.5%+28.7%9661,25187112

Colour key rises once adjusted falls once adjusteddearer than the US averagecheaper than the US averageThe arrow carries the same meaning as the colour, so neither is needed on its own.

What to take away

Read the aggregate and you will conclude the laundry industry is dying. Split it and the truth is sharper: the consumer end fell 36% while the commercial end grew 10%. The work did not disappear — it moved to contracts and to scale.

Where it came from

When this page changes next

QCEW publishes annual averages roughly nine months after the year ends, so this page changes once a year. Quarterly figures appear sooner and are not used here, because a quarter is too short to read a trend from. The pipeline checks every week.

Last checked

This page is free to use and free to quote. If you cite it, please link back so readers can check the figures and the method for themselves.

Cite this page

Free to quote, with or without permission. A link back means your readers can check the figures and the method for themselves. The chart can be embedded straight into your own page, and it carries the attribution with it.

Amara Belkaid, "The decade America’s laundry industry shrank", APXXO, 2026. https://apxxo.com/en-us/data/laundry-capacity-change/

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