NAICS 236 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Construction of Buildings - Industry Benchmarks

$82,433/yr average annual pay, with 13,224 SBA loans on record for NAICS 236.

2.6%
Net margin: 1.6M
Workers employed: $82,433/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $3.9B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 236

Construction of Buildings runs a 2.6% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 255K establishments employing 1.6M workers.

2.6%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 1.6M
Workers employed (Census CBP): $82,433/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $3.9B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Construction of Buildings's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Construction of Buildings is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.

Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023

Benchmarking Insights for Construction of Buildings

Construction of Buildings sits inside Construction at a 2.6% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $495.7B in aggregate receipts across 209,392 returns, averaging $2.4B per establishment.

254,630 establishments employ 1,621,439 workers (6.4/location) at $82,433/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.

Profit Margin

2.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$495.7B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$12.9B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

1,621,439

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$82,433/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

254,630

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 45,268; establishment count increased by 2,996. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Construction of Buildings revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Construction of Buildings

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Construction of Buildings (Census SUSB)

Construction of Buildings margin vs national reference points

Construction of Buildings net margin 8.7%

Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%

Business Structure Breakdown

Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).

C Corporation SOI 2013

209,392 returns

Margin: 2.6% · Receipts: $495.7B

Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022

774,100 returns

Margin: 12.3% · Receipts: $114.1B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 209,392
Avg Receipts per Business: $2.4B
Annual Payroll (Total): $133.7B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 6.4

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Nonresidential Building Construction NAICS 2362	N/A	716,082	$96,783/yr
Residential Building Construction NAICS 2361	N/A	905,357	$71,083/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
California	207,617	29,852	$18.3B	$88,354/yr
Texas	133,451	16,334	$12.6B	$94,361/yr
Florida	111,597	19,051	$9.2B	$82,287/yr
New York	96,794	19,308	$7.8B	$80,662/yr
Pennsylvania	59,654	9,325	$4.5B	$74,709/yr
Washington	56,891	9,869	$4.7B	$82,432/yr
North Carolina	52,834	9,306	$4.2B	$79,658/yr
Illinois	46,149	9,565	$3.9B	$85,274/yr
Ohio	45,179	5,950	$3.5B	$78,296/yr
Virginia	44,549	6,882	$3.6B	$80,905/yr

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

13,224

Total Loan Volume

$3.9B

Avg Loan Size

$296K

Jobs Supported

87,738

Program Breakdown

7(a) 12,529 (95%)

504 695 (5%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

1,367 loans in this industry

New Business Share

21.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

1,371

2021

1,442

2022

1,707

2023

2,153

2024

2,825

2025

3,317

2026

409

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Construction of Buildings?

$495.7B in total annual receipts across all Construction of Buildings businesses. Average per business: $2.4B.

How profitable is Construction of Buildings?

2.6% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.

How many businesses are in Construction of Buildings?

254,630 business establishments. Together they employ 1,621,439 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Construction of Buildings?

$82,433/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.4 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Construction of Buildings employment?

California leads with 207,617 workers. Texas (133,451) and Florida (111,597) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Construction of Buildings receive?

Construction of Buildings businesses received 13,224 SBA loans totaling $3.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $296K. These loans supported 87,738 jobs at origination. Most lending (95%) 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.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Construction of Buildings ranks #24 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #64 of 75 at that same detail level.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Food and Beverage Stores 2.6%
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction 2.6%
Truck Transportation 2.7%

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Transportation Equipment Manufacturing 1,682,910
Personal and Laundry Services 1,556,668
Truck Transportation 1,693,228

Benchmarking Construction of Buildings

Net margin: 2.6% vs sector. Browse Construction
254,630 establishments, 1,621,439 workers. Payroll benchmarks
13,224 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 236 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013

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 Accessed 2026-07-06

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.