Profit Margin
3.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Construction ·NAICS 2373
NAICS 2373 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction - Industry Benchmarks
$98,566/yr average annual pay, with 576 SBA loans on record for NAICS 2373.
- 3.1%
- Net margin
- 315K
- Workers employed
- $98,566/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $368M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 2373
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction runs a 3.1% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 9K establishments employing 315K workers.
- 3.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 315K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $98,566/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $368M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Highway, Street, and Bridge 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 Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction sits inside Construction at a 3.1% net margin (below the national median), $222.5B in aggregate receipts across 23,646 returns, averaging $9.4B per establishment.
9,256 establishments employ 314,940 workers (34.0/location) at $98,566/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction sits in the 65th percentile for employment and the 29th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$222.5B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$6.9B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
314,940
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$98,566/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
9,256
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 7,993; establishment count increased by 54. 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 Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction revenue goes
Workforce scale
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction margin vs national reference points
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction net margin 10.3%
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
23,646 returns
Margin: 3.1% · Receipts: $222.5B
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
64,104 returns
Margin: 6.3% · Receipts: $11.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 23,646
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $9.4B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $31.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 34.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction NAICS 23731 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 38,778 |
| California | 24,421 |
| Florida | 22,060 |
| Pennsylvania | 13,953 |
| North Carolina | 11,870 |
| Virginia | 10,749 |
| New York | 10,354 |
| Arizona | 9,387 |
| New Jersey | 8,990 |
| Colorado | 8,545 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
576
Total Loan Volume
$368M
Avg Loan Size
$639K
Jobs Supported
9,133
Program Breakdown
7(a) 520 (90%)
504 56 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
53 loans in this industry
New Business Share
25.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 99
2021 85
2022 64
2023 71
2024 139
2025 107
2026 11
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction?
$222.5B in total annual receipts across all Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction businesses. Average per business: $9.4B.
How profitable is Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction?
3.1% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction?
9,256 business establishments. Together they employ 314,940 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction?
$98,566/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 34.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction employment?
Texas leads with 38,778 workers. California (24,421) and Florida (22,060) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction receive?
Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction businesses received 576 SBA loans totaling $368 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $639K. These loans supported 9,133 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 Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction ranks #90 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #90 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (3.1% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (314,940 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 2373 · 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.