Employment
157,227
Total employees (Census CBP)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 32221
NAICS 32221 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Paperboard Container Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$70,226/yr average annual pay, with 81 SBA loans on record for NAICS 32221.
- 2K
- Establishments
- 157K
- Workers employed
- $70,226/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $98M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 32221
California leads Paperboard Container Manufacturing activity nationally, across 2K establishments employing 157K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 2K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 157K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $70,226/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $98M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Paperboard Container Manufacturing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Paperboard Container 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Paperboard Container Manufacturing
Paperboard Container Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing.
1,906 establishments employ 157,227 workers (82.5/location) at $70,226/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Ohio and Texas.
Paperboard Container Manufacturing sits in the 72nd percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$70,226/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,906
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 855; establishment count increased by 21. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $11.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 82.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Corrugated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing NAICS 322211 | N/A |
| Folding Paperboard Box Manufacturing NAICS 322212 | N/A |
| Other Paperboard Container Manufacturing NAICS 322219 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 14,386 |
| Ohio | 10,776 |
| Texas | 9,531 |
| Illinois | 9,470 |
| North Carolina | 9,182 |
| Pennsylvania | 8,278 |
| Michigan | 6,887 |
| Tennessee | 6,386 |
| Indiana | 6,289 |
| New York | 5,540 |
Showing top 10 of 42 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
81
Total Loan Volume
$98M
Avg Loan Size
$1212K
Jobs Supported
1,272
Program Breakdown
7(a) 57 (70%)
504 24 (30%)
Top SBA Lender
WBD, Inc.
6 loans in this industry
New Business Share
19.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 13
2021 26
2022 12
2023 6
2024 11
2025 7
2026 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Paperboard Container Manufacturing?
1,906 business establishments. Together they employ 157,227 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Paperboard Container Manufacturing?
$70,226/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 82.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Paperboard Container Manufacturing employment?
California leads with 14,386 workers. Ohio (10,776) and Texas (9,531) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Paperboard Container Manufacturing receive?
Paperboard Container Manufacturing businesses received 81 SBA loans totaling $98 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1212K. These loans supported 1,272 jobs at origination. Most lending (70%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Paperboard Container Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Paperboard Container Manufacturing ranks #152 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (157,227 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 32221 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.