REPAIR INDUSTRY STATS: Number of shops declining

The latest data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that there were 785 fewer autobody shops reporting payroll information at the end of 2009 than there were at the start of the year.
The U.S. shop population has dropped from 36,529 in 2005 to 34,143 in 2009, a decline of 6.5 percent.
Although the number of new-car dealerships in the Unites States rose by 66 (about four-tenths of a percent) in the first half of 2011 (which may make this the first year in a decade in which the dealership count has grown), the number of dealership body shops has declined in recent years.
The National Automobile Dealers Association reports that about 33 percent of the nation’s 17,700 dealerships have body shops (down from 37 percent in 2007). That translates into a decline of about 1,800 dealership body shops (about 24 percent) since 2007.
Dealership body shops account for an estimated 21 percent of the total collision repair market.