Profit Margin
4.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 311
NAICS 311 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Food Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$55,880/yr average annual pay, with 4,203 SBA loans on record for NAICS 311.
- 4.6%
- Net margin
- 1.7M
- Workers employed
- $55,880/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 311
Food Manufacturing runs a 4.6% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 31K establishments employing 1.7M workers.
- 4.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.7M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $55,880/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Food Manufacturing
Food Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 4.6% net margin (below the national median), $708.3B in aggregate receipts across 73,762 returns, averaging $9.6B per establishment.
31,130 establishments employ 1,707,316 workers (54.8/location) at $55,880/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Illinois.
Total Receipts
$708.3B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$32.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,707,316
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$55,880/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
31,130
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 54,938; establishment count increased by 627. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Food Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Food Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Food Manufacturing net margin 15.3%
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
15,602 returns 21%
Margin: 4.7% · Receipts: $699.3B
Sole Proprietorship
58,160 returns 79%
Margin: -1.1% · Receipts: $9.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 73,762
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $9.6B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $95.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 54.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Animal Food Manufacturing NAICS 3111 | 3.9% |
| Animal Slaughtering and Processing NAICS 3116 | 2.5% |
| Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing NAICS 3118 | 4.3% |
| Dairy Product Manufacturing NAICS 3115 | 3.5% |
| Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing NAICS 3114 | 5.7% |
| Grain and Oilseed Milling NAICS 3112 | N/A |
| Other Food Manufacturing NAICS 3119 | 5.5% |
| Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging NAICS 3117 | N/A |
| Sugar and Confectionery Product Manufacturing NAICS 3113 | 11.7% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 175,392 |
| Texas | 114,544 |
| Illinois | 89,684 |
| Wisconsin | 80,121 |
| Pennsylvania | 78,350 |
| Georgia | 72,868 |
| Ohio | 63,363 |
| North Carolina | 62,272 |
| Iowa | 57,496 |
| New York | 54,317 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
4,203
Total Loan Volume
$2.5B
Avg Loan Size
$602K
Jobs Supported
62,429
Program Breakdown
7(a) 3,679 (88%)
504 524 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
310 loans in this industry
New Business Share
34.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 473
2021 651
2022 626
2023 710
2024 796
2025 853
2026 94
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Food Manufacturing?
$708.3B in total annual receipts across all Food Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $9.6B.
How profitable is Food Manufacturing?
4.6% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Food Manufacturing?
31,130 business establishments. Together they employ 1,707,316 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Food Manufacturing?
$55,880/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 54.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Food Manufacturing employment?
California leads with 175,392 workers. Texas (114,544) and Illinois (89,684) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Food Manufacturing receive?
Food Manufacturing businesses received 4,203 SBA loans totaling $2.5 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $602K. These loans supported 62,429 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) 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: Food Manufacturing reports a higher net margin than 42% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 73% 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.
- Truck Transportation 1,693,228
- Transportation Equipment Manufacturing 1,682,910
- Construction of Buildings 1,621,439
Benchmarking Food Manufacturing
- Net margin: 4.6% vs sector. Browse Manufacturing
- 31,130 establishments, 1,707,316 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 4,203 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 311 · 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.