Employment
73,598
Total employees (Census CBP)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 311991
NAICS 311991 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$51,476/yr average annual pay, with 157 SBA loans on record for NAICS 311991.
- 6.7%
- Manufacturing sector margin
- 74K
- Workers employed
- $51,476/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $145M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 311991
California leads Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing 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)
- 74K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $51,476/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $145M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing
Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing, a sector that runs a 6.7% net margin overall.
1,032 establishments employ 73,598 workers (71.3/location) at $51,476/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Ohio.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$51,476/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,032
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 661; establishment count increased by 77. 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)
- $3.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 71.3
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 19,040 |
| Texas | 5,349 |
| Ohio | 4,077 |
| Arizona | 3,441 |
| Illinois | 2,868 |
| Minnesota | 2,641 |
| New York | 2,248 |
| Pennsylvania | 2,185 |
| Washington | 2,091 |
| Florida | 1,772 |
Showing top 10 of 43 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
157
Total Loan Volume
$145M
Avg Loan Size
$924K
Jobs Supported
3,739
Program Breakdown
7(a) 131 (83%)
504 26 (17%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
9 loans in this industry
New Business Share
22.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 20
2021 24
2022 22
2023 25
2024 40
2025 25
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 311991 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Manufacturing sector runs a 6.7% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing?
1,032 business establishments. Together they employ 73,598 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing?
$51,476/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 71.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing employment?
California leads with 19,040 workers. Texas (5,349) and Ohio (4,077) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing receive?
Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing businesses received 157 SBA loans totaling $145 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $924K. These loans supported 3,739 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) 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 65% of that same 801-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 Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Manufacturing
- 1,032 establishments, 73,598 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 157 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 311991 · 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.