Manufacturing ·NAICS 325

NAICS 325 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

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 July 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

Benchmarking Insights for Chemical Manufacturing

Chemical Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 9.5% net margin (in line with the national median), $976.4B in aggregate receipts across 30,771 returns, averaging $31.7B 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.

Profit Margin

9.5%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$976.4B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$92.9B

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.

Where each dollar of Chemical Manufacturing revenue goes

Workforce scale

Chemical Manufacturing margin vs national reference points

Chemical Manufacturing net margin 31.7%
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
8,281 returns 27%

Margin: 9.5% · Receipts: $973.7B

Sole Proprietorship
22,490 returns 73%

Margin: 13.6% · Receipts: $2.6B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
30,771
Avg Receipts per Business
$31.7B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$89.0B
Avg Employees per Establishment
62.7

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Basic Chemical Manufacturing

NAICS 3251

 6.8%
Other Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing

NAICS 3259

 9.8%
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing

NAICS 3255

 4.5%
Pesticide, Fertilizer, and Other Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing

NAICS 3253

 N/A
Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing

NAICS 3254

 9.9%
Resin, Synthetic Rubber, and Artificial and Synthetic Fibers and Filaments Manufacturing

NAICS 3252

 8.7%
Soap, Cleaning Compound, and Toilet Preparation Manufacturing

NAICS 3256

 16.6%

Top States by Employment

State Employment
Texas 80,054
Ohio 49,345
North Carolina 48,279
New York 43,139
Pennsylvania 42,919
Illinois 40,553
New Jersey 38,089
Michigan 36,836
Indiana 30,306
Georgia 28,388

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
17

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Chemical Manufacturing?
$976.4B in total annual receipts across all Chemical Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $31.7B.
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.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

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 Chemical Manufacturing

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 · 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.