Employment
667,277
Total employees (Census CBP)
Utilities ·NAICS 221
NAICS 221 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Utilities - Industry Benchmarks
$127,240/yr average annual pay, with 536 SBA loans on record for NAICS 221.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin
- 667K
- Workers employed
- $127,240/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $300M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 221
Texas leads Utilities activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 667K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $127,240/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $300M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Utilities
Utilities sits inside Utilities, a sector that runs a 2.6% net margin overall.
20,379 establishments employ 667,277 workers (32.7/location) at $127,240/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by New York and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$127,240/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
20,379
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 22,063; establishment count decreased by 46. 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)
- $84.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 32.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution NAICS 2211 | 0.0% |
| Natural Gas Distribution NAICS 2212 | -0.1% |
| Water, Sewage and Other Systems NAICS 2213 | 2.4% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 61,731 |
| New York | 40,711 |
| Florida | 30,699 |
| Illinois | 27,143 |
| Mississippi | 8,946 |
| Kansas | 7,188 |
| New Mexico | 4,497 |
| Tennessee | 3,505 |
| Alaska | 2,283 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
536
Total Loan Volume
$300M
Avg Loan Size
$559K
Jobs Supported
5,461
Program Breakdown
7(a) 494 (92%)
504 42 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
35 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 63
2021 102
2022 88
2023 63
2024 102
2025 111
2026 7
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Utilities?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 221 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Utilities?
20,379 business establishments. Together they employ 667,277 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Utilities?
$127,240/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 32.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Utilities employment?
Texas leads with 61,731 workers. New York (40,711) and Florida (30,699) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Utilities receive?
Utilities businesses received 536 SBA loans totaling $300 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $559K. These loans supported 5,461 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) 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 44% of that same 77-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 Utilities
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Utilities
- 20,379 establishments, 667,277 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 536 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 221 · 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.