Employment
14,060
Total employees (Census CBP)
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction ·NAICS 212221
NAICS 212221 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Gold Ore Mining - Industry Benchmarks
$112,564/yr average annual pay across 183 establishments in NAICS 212221.
- 17.6%
- Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector margin
- 14K
- Workers employed
- $112,564/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 212221
California leads Gold Ore Mining activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector runs a 17.6% net margin.
- 17.6%
- Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 14K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $112,564/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
Benchmarking Insights for Gold Ore Mining
Gold Ore Mining sits inside Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction, a sector that runs a 17.6% net margin overall.
183 establishments employ 14,060 workers (76.8/location) at $112,564/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Arizona and Montana.
No recorded SBA 7(a)/504 lending for Gold Ore Mining in the FY2020-26 dataset.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$112,564/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
183
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 407; establishment count increased by 5. 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)
- $1.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 76.8
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 549 |
| Arizona | 120 |
| Montana | 13 |
| Oregon | 4 |
Showing top 10 of 11 states
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Gold Ore Mining?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 212221 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector runs a 17.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Gold Ore Mining?
183 business establishments. Together they employ 14,060 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Gold Ore Mining?
$112,564/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 76.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Gold Ore Mining employment?
California leads with 549 workers. Arizona (120) and Montana (13) round out the top three.
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.
Benchmarking Gold Ore Mining
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
- 183 establishments, 14,060 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- No SBA lending on record for Gold Ore Mining. See the 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 212221 · 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.