Employment
4,581
Total employees (Census CBP)
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting ·NAICS 11411
NAICS 11411 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Fishing - Industry Benchmarks
$88,205/yr average annual pay, with 158 SBA loans on record for NAICS 11411.
- 6.8%
- Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting sector margin
- 5K
- Workers employed
- $88,205/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $36M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 11411
Washington leads Fishing activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting sector runs a 6.8% net margin.
- 6.8%
- Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 5K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $88,205/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $36M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Fishing
Fishing sits inside Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, a sector that runs a 6.8% net margin overall.
2,503 establishments employ 4,581 workers (1.8/location) at $88,205/yr average annual pay. Washington leads employment, followed by Virginia and Massachusetts.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$88,205/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,503
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 763; establishment count decreased by 134. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $404.1M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 1.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Finfish Fishing NAICS 114111 | N/A |
| Other Marine Fishing NAICS 114119 | N/A |
| Shellfish Fishing NAICS 114112 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Washington | 1,055 |
| Virginia | 349 |
| Massachusetts | 262 |
| Oregon | 209 |
| Rhode Island | 75 |
| Maryland | 27 |
| Indiana | 3 |
| Arizona | 1 |
Showing top 10 of 36 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
158
Total Loan Volume
$36M
Avg Loan Size
$228K
Jobs Supported
668
Program Breakdown
7(a) 151 (96%)
504 7 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
Franklin Savings Bank
14 loans in this industry
New Business Share
32.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 31
2021 27
2022 32
2023 14
2024 25
2025 28
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Fishing?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 11411 level. Washington leads this industry nationally. The broader Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting sector runs a 6.8% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Fishing?
2,503 business establishments. Together they employ 4,581 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Fishing?
$88,205/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 1.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Fishing employment?
Washington leads with 1,055 workers. Virginia (349) and Massachusetts (262) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Fishing receive?
Fishing businesses received 158 SBA loans totaling $36 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $228K. These loans supported 668 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 3% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Fishing
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
- 2,503 establishments, 4,581 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 158 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 11411 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.