Since 1950, the trend in this industry has been toward consolidation. Franchised dealers have decreased in number while their sales volume has increased. Larger dealers can offer more services, typically at lower costs to the dealer and the customer. Over half of jobs in automobile dealers were in establishments employing between 50 and 249 workers (chart). On average, automobile dealers had nearly 25 employees per establishment, compared with an average of about 14 employees in all retail businesses.