Profit Margin
2.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Construction ·NAICS 237
NAICS 237 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction - Industry Benchmarks
$91,313/yr average annual pay, with 2,034 SBA loans on record for NAICS 237.
- 2.6%
- Net margin
- 1.1M
- Workers employed
- $91,313/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 237
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction runs a 2.6% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 39K establishments employing 1.1M workers.
- 2.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.1M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $91,313/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction 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 Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction sits inside Construction at a 2.6% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $243.6B in aggregate receipts across 50,815 returns, averaging $4.8B per establishment.
38,612 establishments employ 1,051,261 workers (27.2/location) at $91,313/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction sits in the 56th percentile for employment and the 17th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$243.6B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$6.4B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,051,261
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$91,313/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
38,612
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 38,806; establishment count increased by 398. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Where each dollar of Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction revenue goes
Workforce scale
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction margin vs national reference points
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction net margin 8.8%
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
50,815 returns 100%
Margin: 2.6% · Receipts: $243.6B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 50,815
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $4.8B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $96.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 27.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction NAICS 2373 | 3.1% |
| Land Subdivision NAICS 2372 | -2.4% |
| Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction NAICS 2379 | N/A |
| Utility System Construction NAICS 2371 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 178,438 |
| California | 80,469 |
| Florida | 63,325 |
| Louisiana | 59,988 |
| North Carolina | 39,662 |
| Pennsylvania | 34,363 |
| Georgia | 31,216 |
| New York | 30,029 |
| Illinois | 29,689 |
| Virginia | 28,607 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,034
Total Loan Volume
$1.3B
Avg Loan Size
$618K
Jobs Supported
29,405
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,830 (90%)
504 204 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
175 loans in this industry
New Business Share
26.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 288
2021 326
2022 236
2023 308
2024 421
2025 418
2026 37
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction?
$243.6B in total annual receipts across all Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction businesses. Average per business: $4.8B.
How profitable is Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction?
2.6% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction?
38,612 business establishments. Together they employ 1,051,261 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction?
$91,313/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 27.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction employment?
Texas leads with 178,438 workers. California (80,469) and Florida (63,325) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction receive?
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction businesses received 2,034 SBA loans totaling $1.3 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $618K. These loans supported 29,405 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction ranks #34 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 #62 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (2.6% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,051,261 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Construction · 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 237 · 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
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.