Industry comparison

Educational Services vs Retail Trade (general)

NAICS-sector comparison built from the H1B Report corpus. Filing volume, distinct sponsor count, sponsor concentration and dominant occupations.

Summary

Educational Services and Retail Trade represent two distinct approaches to H-1B sponsorship in the U.S. labor market.

Educational Services filed 248,228 H-1B petitions across 4,947 sponsoring employers, making it the dominant sector by filing volume. Retail Trade filed 161,910 petitions across 1,806 employers, roughly 35% fewer filings overall. Educational Services maintains a higher employer count despite lower average filings per employer, reflecting its distributed nature across universities, schools, and educational institutions.

Retail Trade sponsors fewer total petitions and employers, but its petitions are concentrated among a smaller employer base. The filing volume difference suggests Educational Services relies more heavily on foreign talent, while Retail Trade's lower filing count reflects either reduced reliance on H-1B sponsorship or a more selective approach to visa-based hiring.

Educational Services vs Retail Trade H-1B
H-1B filings by sector comparison
Educational Services H-1B sponsorship
Retail Trade H-1B filings
H-1B sector analysis

Sector A

Educational Services

NAICS 61Rank #5

Sector B

Retail Trade (general)

NAICS 45Rank #6

Key metrics

Filings / employer is a concentration hint — higher means a few sponsors do most of the filing.

Metric	Educational Services	Retail Trade (general)
Total filings	248,228▲	161,910
National share %	6.48%▲	4.23%
Distinct sponsors	4,947▲	1,806
Filings / employer	50	90
Rank	#5▲	#6
Top sponsor	University of Michigan	AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC (WA)
Top occupation	Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary	Software Developers