Employment
208,201
Total employees (Census CBP)
Construction ·NAICS 23832
NAICS 23832 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors - Industry Benchmarks
$55,165/yr average annual pay, with 2,028 SBA loans on record for NAICS 23832.
- 3.4%
- Construction sector margin
- 208K
- Workers employed
- $55,165/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $468M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 23832
California leads Painting and Wall Covering Contractors activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Construction sector runs a 3.4% net margin.
- 3.4%
- Construction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 208K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $55,165/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $468M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Painting and Wall Covering Contractors's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors sits inside Construction, a sector that runs a 3.4% net margin overall.
38,280 establishments employ 208,201 workers (5.4/location) at $55,165/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors sits in the 79th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$55,165/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
38,280
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 10,494; establishment count increased by 317. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $11.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 5.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Painting and Wall Covering Contractors NAICS 238320 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 33,206 |
| Texas | 23,652 |
| Florida | 17,838 |
| New York | 10,664 |
| Washington | 9,144 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,221 |
| Virginia | 6,137 |
| Illinois | 6,093 |
| Arizona | 5,183 |
| Ohio | 4,863 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,028
Total Loan Volume
$468M
Avg Loan Size
$231K
Jobs Supported
13,935
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,953 (96%)
504 75 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
296 loans in this industry
New Business Share
29.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 235
2021 188
2022 256
2023 356
2024 444
2025 480
2026 69
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 23832 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Construction sector runs a 3.4% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
38,280 business establishments. Together they employ 208,201 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
$55,165/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 5.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Painting and Wall Covering Contractors employment?
California leads with 33,206 workers. Texas (23,652) and Florida (17,838) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Painting and Wall Covering Contractors receive?
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors businesses received 2,028 SBA loans totaling $468 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $231K. These loans supported 13,935 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Painting and Wall Covering Contractors, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Painting and Wall Covering Contractors ranks #117 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (208,201 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 23832 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.