NAICS 325 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Chemical Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks

$97,721/yr average annual pay, with 1,037 SBA loans on record for NAICS 325.

9.5%
Net margin: 911K
Workers employed: $97,721/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.0B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 325

Chemical Manufacturing runs a 9.5% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 15K establishments employing 911K workers.

9.5%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 911K
Workers employed (Census CBP): $97,721/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.0B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Chemical Manufacturing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing

Chemical Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 9.5% net margin (in line with the national median), $973.7B in aggregate receipts across 8,281 returns, averaging $117.6B per establishment.

14,543 establishments employ 911,245 workers (62.7/location) at $97,721/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by Ohio and North Carolina.

Chemical Manufacturing sits in the 51st percentile for employment and the 85th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

9.5%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$973.7B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$92.6B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

911,245

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$97,721/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

14,543

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 15,516; establishment count decreased by 58. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Chemical Manufacturing revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Chemical Manufacturing

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Chemical Manufacturing (Census SUSB)

Chemical Manufacturing margin vs national reference points

Chemical Manufacturing net margin 31.7%

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

8,281 returns

Margin: 9.5% · Receipts: $973.7B

Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022

22,490 returns

Margin: 13.6% · Receipts: $2.6B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 8,281
Avg Receipts per Business: $117.6B
Annual Payroll (Total): $89.0B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 62.7

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Basic Chemical Manufacturing NAICS 3251	6.8%	N/A	N/A
Other Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing NAICS 3259	9.8%	86,668	$78,366/yr
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing NAICS 3255	4.5%	77,815	$76,867/yr
Pesticide, Fertilizer, and Other Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing NAICS 3253	N/A	37,403	$94,379/yr
Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing NAICS 3254	9.9%	321,068	$113,582/yr
Resin, Synthetic Rubber, and Artificial and Synthetic Fibers and Filaments Manufacturing NAICS 3252	8.7%	114,089	$89,427/yr
Soap, Cleaning Compound, and Toilet Preparation Manufacturing NAICS 3256	16.6%	106,155	$70,767/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Texas	80,054	1,277	$9.1B	$113,061/yr
Ohio	49,345	696	$4.1B	$83,569/yr
North Carolina	48,279	456	$4.3B	$88,207/yr
New York	43,139	564	$3.9B	$90,611/yr
Pennsylvania	42,919	608	$4.5B	$105,472/yr
Illinois	40,553	665	$3.7B	$91,669/yr
New Jersey	38,089	586	$3.8B	$99,526/yr
Michigan	36,836	455	N/A	N/A
Indiana	30,306	367	N/A	N/A
Georgia	28,388	493	$2.3B	$79,544/yr

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

1,037

Total Loan Volume

$1.0B

Avg Loan Size

$1006K

Jobs Supported

14,776

Program Breakdown

7(a) 838 (81%)

504 199 (19%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

48 loans in this industry

New Business Share

19.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

143

2021

238

2022

150

2023

145

2024

174

2025

170

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Chemical Manufacturing?

$973.7B in total annual receipts across all Chemical Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $117.6B.

How profitable is Chemical Manufacturing?

9.5% net profit margin, in line with the national median.

How many businesses are in Chemical Manufacturing?

14,543 business establishments. Together they employ 911,245 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Chemical Manufacturing?

$97,721/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 62.7 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Chemical Manufacturing employment?

Texas leads with 80,054 workers. Ohio (49,345) and North Carolina (48,279) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Chemical Manufacturing receive?

Chemical Manufacturing businesses received 1,037 SBA loans totaling $1.0 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1006K. These loans supported 14,776 jobs at origination. Most lending (81%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Chemical Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Chemical Manufacturing ranks #38 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 #11 of 75 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (9.5% here).

Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing 9.6% Publishing Industries (except Internet) 9.4% Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries 9.3%

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (911,245 here).

Telecommunications 912,645 Support Activities for Transportation 853,486 Miscellaneous Store Retailers 831,551

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 325 · 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 Accessed 2026-07-06

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.