Employment
556,205
Total employees (Census CBP)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 31161
NAICS 31161 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Animal Slaughtering and Processing - Industry Benchmarks
$50,981/yr average annual pay, with 283 SBA loans on record for NAICS 31161.
- 6.7%
- Manufacturing sector margin
- 556K
- Workers employed
- $50,981/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $254M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 31161
Texas leads Animal Slaughtering and Processing activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Manufacturing sector runs a 6.7% net margin.
- 6.7%
- Manufacturing sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 556K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $50,981/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $254M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Animal Slaughtering and Processing
Animal Slaughtering and Processing sits inside Manufacturing, a sector that runs a 6.7% net margin overall.
3,716 establishments employ 556,205 workers (149.7/location) at $50,981/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by Georgia and North Carolina.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$50,981/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
3,716
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 22,049; establishment count increased by 53. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $28.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 149.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Animal (except Poultry) Slaughtering NAICS 311611 | N/A |
| Meat Processed from Carcasses NAICS 311612 | N/A |
| Poultry Processing NAICS 311615 | N/A |
| Rendering and Meat Byproduct Processing NAICS 311613 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 45,056 |
| Georgia | 37,848 |
| North Carolina | 34,430 |
| Iowa | 34,010 |
| Alabama | 25,711 |
| Illinois | 23,872 |
| Pennsylvania | 19,447 |
| Mississippi | 18,488 |
| Wisconsin | 18,089 |
| Minnesota | 17,848 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
283
Total Loan Volume
$254M
Avg Loan Size
$898K
Jobs Supported
4,242
Program Breakdown
7(a) 233 (82%)
504 50 (18%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
11 loans in this industry
New Business Share
35.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 30
2021 63
2022 50
2023 39
2024 47
2025 48
2026 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Animal Slaughtering and Processing?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 31161 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Manufacturing sector runs a 6.7% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Animal Slaughtering and Processing?
3,716 business establishments. Together they employ 556,205 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Animal Slaughtering and Processing?
$50,981/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 149.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Animal Slaughtering and Processing employment?
Texas leads with 45,056 workers. Georgia (37,848) and North Carolina (34,430) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Animal Slaughtering and Processing receive?
Animal Slaughtering and Processing businesses received 283 SBA loans totaling $254 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $898K. These loans supported 4,242 jobs at origination. Most lending (82%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 91% of that same 551-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Animal Slaughtering and Processing
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Manufacturing
- 3,716 establishments, 556,205 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 283 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 31161 · 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.