Profit Margin
5.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 315
NAICS 315 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Apparel Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$41,181/yr average annual pay, with 686 SBA loans on record for NAICS 315.
- 5.1%
- Net margin
- 63K
- Workers employed
- $41,181/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $431M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 315
Apparel Manufacturing runs a 5.1% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 4K establishments employing 63K workers.
- 5.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 63K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $41,181/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $431M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Apparel Manufacturing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Apparel Manufacturing 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 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Apparel Manufacturing
Apparel Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 5.1% net margin (below the national median), $52.0B in aggregate receipts across 9,116 returns, averaging $5.7B per establishment.
4,337 establishments employ 63,163 workers (14.6/location) at $41,181/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by North Carolina and New York.
Apparel Manufacturing sits in the 9th percentile for employment and the 57th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$52.0B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$2.6B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
63,163
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$41,181/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,337
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 7,152; establishment count decreased by 396. 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)Where each dollar of Apparel Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Apparel Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Apparel Manufacturing net margin 16.9%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
9,116 returns 100%
Margin: 5.1% · Receipts: $52.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 9,116
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $5.7B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $2.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing NAICS 3159 | 9.6% |
| Apparel Knitting Mills NAICS 3151 | 3.5% |
| Cut and Sew Apparel Manufacturing NAICS 3152 | 5.2% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 18,034 |
| North Carolina | 5,514 |
| New York | 4,928 |
| New Jersey | 2,697 |
| Pennsylvania | 2,504 |
| Tennessee | 1,910 |
| Alabama | 1,550 |
| Illinois | 1,351 |
| Missouri | 1,071 |
| Maryland | 857 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
686
Total Loan Volume
$431M
Avg Loan Size
$628K
Jobs Supported
8,802
Program Breakdown
7(a) 591 (86%)
504 95 (14%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
65 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 80
2021 71
2022 94
2023 117
2024 136
2025 171
2026 17
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Apparel Manufacturing?
$52.0B in total annual receipts across all Apparel Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $5.7B.
How profitable is Apparel Manufacturing?
5.1% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Apparel Manufacturing?
4,337 business establishments. Together they employ 63,163 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Apparel Manufacturing?
$41,181/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Apparel Manufacturing employment?
California leads with 18,034 workers. North Carolina (5,514) and New York (4,928) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Apparel Manufacturing receive?
Apparel Manufacturing businesses received 686 SBA loans totaling $431 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $628K. These loans supported 8,802 jobs at origination. Most lending (86%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Apparel Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Apparel Manufacturing ranks #70 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #32 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (5.1% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (63,163 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Manufacturing · 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 315 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.