Profit Margin
6.8%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 322
NAICS 322 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Paper Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$75,350/yr average annual pay, with 218 SBA loans on record for NAICS 322.
- 6.8%
- Net margin
- 351K
- Workers employed
- $75,350/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $246M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 322
Paper Manufacturing runs a 6.8% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 4K establishments employing 351K workers.
- 6.8%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 351K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $75,350/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $246M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Paper Manufacturing
Paper Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 6.8% net margin (below the national median), $178.5B in aggregate receipts across 3,114 returns, averaging $57.3B per establishment.
3,813 establishments employ 351,485 workers (92.2/location) at $75,350/yr average annual pay. Wisconsin leads employment, followed by Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Total Receipts
$178.5B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$12.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
351,485
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$75,350/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
3,813
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 3,838; establishment count decreased by 9. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Paper Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Paper Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Paper Manufacturing net margin 22.5%
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
3,114 returns 100%
Margin: 6.8% · Receipts: $178.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 3,114
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $57.3B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $26.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 92.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Converted Paper Product Manufacturing NAICS 3222 | 9.5% |
| Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills NAICS 3221 | 2.4% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 26,617 |
| Pennsylvania | 21,606 |
| Ohio | 19,980 |
| California | 18,652 |
| North Carolina | 17,492 |
| Texas | 15,619 |
| Illinois | 15,067 |
| New York | 14,117 |
| Tennessee | 12,056 |
| Michigan | 11,908 |
Showing top 10 of 45 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
218
Total Loan Volume
$246M
Avg Loan Size
$1129K
Jobs Supported
2,838
Program Breakdown
7(a) 156 (72%)
504 62 (28%)
Top SBA Lender
WBD, Inc.
12 loans in this industry
New Business Share
21.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 28
2021 55
2022 34
2023 28
2024 32
2025 33
2026 8
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Paper Manufacturing?
$178.5B in total annual receipts across all Paper Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $57.3B.
How profitable is Paper Manufacturing?
6.8% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Paper Manufacturing?
3,813 business establishments. Together they employ 351,485 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Paper Manufacturing?
$75,350/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 92.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Paper Manufacturing employment?
Wisconsin leads with 26,617 workers. Pennsylvania (21,606) and Ohio (19,980) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Paper Manufacturing receive?
Paper Manufacturing businesses received 218 SBA loans totaling $246 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1129K. These loans supported 2,838 jobs at origination. Most lending (72%) 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: Paper Manufacturing reports a higher net margin than 65% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 25% 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.
Benchmarking Paper Manufacturing
- Net margin: 6.8% vs sector. Browse Manufacturing
- 3,813 establishments, 351,485 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 218 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 322 · 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.