Employment
14,132
Total employees (Census CBP)
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting ·NAICS 115112
NAICS 115112 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating - Industry Benchmarks
$65,414/yr average annual pay, with 145 SBA loans on record for NAICS 115112.
- 6.8%
- Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting sector margin
- 14K
- Workers employed
- $65,414/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $65M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 115112
California leads Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating 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)
- 14K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $65,414/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $65M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating
Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating sits inside Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, a sector that runs a 6.8% net margin overall.
2,210 establishments employ 14,132 workers (6.4/location) at $65,414/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Iowa.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$65,414/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,210
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,291; establishment count increased by 10. 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)
- $924.4M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.4
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 3,347 |
| Texas | 975 |
| Iowa | 637 |
| Minnesota | 530 |
| Pennsylvania | 478 |
| Nebraska | 396 |
| North Carolina | 306 |
| Kansas | 288 |
| Mississippi | 279 |
| Indiana | 250 |
Showing top 10 of 45 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
145
Total Loan Volume
$65M
Avg Loan Size
$450K
Jobs Supported
717
Program Breakdown
7(a) 136 (94%)
504 9 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
7 loans in this industry
New Business Share
43.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 18
2021 22
2022 25
2023 26
2024 24
2025 24
2026 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 115112 level. California 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 Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating?
2,210 business establishments. Together they employ 14,132 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating?
$65,414/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating employment?
California leads with 3,347 workers. Texas (975) and Iowa (637) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating receive?
Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating businesses received 145 SBA loans totaling $65 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $450K. These loans supported 717 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) 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 23% of that same 801-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.
- Rolled Steel Shape Manufacturing 14,143
- Other Waste Collection 14,188
- Gold Ore Mining 14,060
Benchmarking Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
- 2,210 establishments, 14,132 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 145 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 115112 · 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.