Profit Margin
7.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Construction ·NAICS 238
NAICS 238 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Specialty Trade Contractors - Industry Benchmarks
$71,571/yr average annual pay, with 34,529 SBA loans on record for NAICS 238.
- 7.6%
- Net margin
- 5.0M
- Workers employed
- $71,571/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $14.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 238
Specialty Trade Contractors runs a 7.6% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 521K establishments employing 5.0M workers.
- 7.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 5.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $71,571/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $14.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Specialty Trade Contractors
Specialty Trade Contractors sits inside Construction at a 7.6% net margin (in line with the national median), $852.9B in aggregate receipts across 2,913,744 returns, averaging $292.7M per establishment.
521,315 establishments employ 4,986,759 workers (9.6/location) at $71,571/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$852.9B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$65.3B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
4,986,759
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$71,571/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
521,315
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 213,538; establishment count increased by 10,512. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Specialty Trade Contractors revenue goes
Workforce scale
Specialty Trade Contractors margin vs national reference points
Specialty Trade Contractors net margin 25.5%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
435,053 returns 15%
Margin: 4.3% · Receipts: $601.1B
Sole Proprietorship
2,478,691 returns 85%
Margin: 15.7% · Receipts: $251.8B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 2,913,744
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $292.7M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $356.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Building Equipment Contractors NAICS 2382 | 4.0% |
| Building Finishing Contractors NAICS 2383 | N/A |
| Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors NAICS 2381 | 4.9% |
| Other Specialty Trade Contractors NAICS 2389 | 4.2% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 582,703 |
| Texas | 479,699 |
| Florida | 386,498 |
| New York | 244,452 |
| Pennsylvania | 166,915 |
| North Carolina | 156,911 |
| Illinois | 153,878 |
| Washington | 149,030 |
| Ohio | 147,302 |
| Arizona | 142,590 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
34,529
Total Loan Volume
$14.8B
Avg Loan Size
$430K
Jobs Supported
324,487
Program Breakdown
7(a) 31,307 (91%)
504 3,222 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
4,254 loans in this industry
New Business Share
22.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 4,041
2021 4,435
2022 4,576
2023 5,687
2024 7,216
2025 7,528
2026 1,046
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Specialty Trade Contractors?
$852.9B in total annual receipts across all Specialty Trade Contractors businesses. Average per business: $292.7M.
How profitable is Specialty Trade Contractors?
7.6% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Specialty Trade Contractors?
521,315 business establishments. Together they employ 4,986,759 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Specialty Trade Contractors?
$71,571/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Specialty Trade Contractors employment?
California leads with 582,703 workers. Texas (479,699) and Florida (386,498) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Specialty Trade Contractors receive?
Specialty Trade Contractors businesses received 34,529 SBA loans totaling $14.8 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $430K. These loans supported 324,487 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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: Specialty Trade Contractors reports a higher net margin than 71% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 92% 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 reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Educational Services 3,926,820
- Management of Companies and Enterprises 3,855,720
- Social Assistance 3,742,670
Benchmarking Specialty Trade Contractors
- Net margin: 7.6% vs sector. Browse Construction
- 521,315 establishments, 4,986,759 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 34,529 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 238 · 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.