NAICS 3261 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Plastics Product Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks

$59,808/yr average annual pay, with 674 SBA loans on record for NAICS 3261.

4.0%
Net margin: 677K
Workers employed: $59,808/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $836M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 3261

Plastics Product Manufacturing runs a 4.0% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 10K establishments employing 677K workers.

4.0%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 677K
Workers employed (Census CBP): $59,808/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $836M
SBA lending, FY20–26

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

Plastics Product 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 Plastics Product Manufacturing

Plastics Product Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 4.0% net margin (below the national median), $129.7B in aggregate receipts across 9,324 returns, averaging $13.9B per establishment.

9,636 establishments employ 677,305 workers (70.3/location) at $59,808/yr average annual pay. Ohio leads employment, followed by Texas and Michigan.

Plastics Product Manufacturing sits in the 80th percentile for employment and the 37th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

4.0%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$129.7B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$5.2B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

677,305

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$59,808/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

9,636

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 5,200; establishment count decreased by 37. 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 Plastics Product Manufacturing revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Plastics Product Manufacturing

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Plastics Product Manufacturing (Census SUSB)

Plastics Product Manufacturing margin vs national reference points

Plastics Product Manufacturing net margin 13.4%

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

9,324 returns 100%

Margin: 4.0% · Receipts: $129.7B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 9,324
Avg Receipts per Business: $13.9B
Annual Payroll (Total): $40.5B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 70.3

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Laminated Plastics Plate, Sheet (except Packaging), and Shape Manufacturing NAICS 32613	N/A	12,368	$67,050/yr
Other Plastics Product Manufacturing NAICS 32619	N/A	410,729	$56,854/yr
Plastics Bottle Manufacturing NAICS 32616	N/A	37,673	N/A
Plastics Packaging Materials and Unlaminated Film and Sheet Manufacturing NAICS 32611	N/A	110,199	$68,612/yr
Plastics Pipe, Pipe Fitting, and Unlaminated Profile Shape Manufacturing NAICS 32612	N/A	44,297	$65,654/yr
Polystyrene Foam Product Manufacturing NAICS 32614	N/A	28,573	$58,745/yr
Urethane and Other Foam Product (except Polystyrene) Manufacturing NAICS 32615	N/A	33,466	$55,935/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Ohio	53,550	637	$3.2B	$58,897/yr
Texas	47,653	665	$2.8B	$58,623/yr
Michigan	46,953	517	$2.6B	$54,455/yr
California	45,039	976	$3.0B	$67,310/yr
Indiana	36,642	400	$1.9B	$53,110/yr
Illinois	35,895	540	$2.3B	$65,320/yr
Pennsylvania	35,817	493	$2.2B	$60,254/yr
Wisconsin	30,742	373	$1.9B	$63,160/yr
North Carolina	28,825	314	$1.7B	$59,414/yr
Georgia	26,967	302	$1.5B	$55,510/yr

Showing top 10 of 50 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

674

Total Loan Volume

$836M

Avg Loan Size

$1241K

Jobs Supported

13,228

Program Breakdown

7(a) 495 (73%)

504 179 (27%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

38 loans in this industry

New Business Share

18.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

111

2021

150

2022

103

2023

2024

2025

120

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Plastics Product Manufacturing?

$129.7B in total annual receipts across all Plastics Product Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $13.9B.

How profitable is Plastics Product Manufacturing?

4.0% net profit margin, below the national median.

How many businesses are in Plastics Product Manufacturing?

9,636 business establishments. Together they employ 677,305 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Plastics Product Manufacturing?

$59,808/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 70.3 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Plastics Product Manufacturing employment?

Ohio leads with 53,550 workers. Texas (47,653) and Michigan (46,953) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Plastics Product Manufacturing receive?

Plastics Product Manufacturing businesses received 674 SBA loans totaling $836 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1241K. These loans supported 13,228 jobs at origination. Most lending (73%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Plastics Product Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Plastics Product Manufacturing ranks #53 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #79 of 126 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (4.0% here).

Rubber Product Manufacturing 4.0% Building Equipment Contractors 4.0% Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers 4.0%

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (677,305 here).

Business Support Services 673,396 Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers 670,408 Other Financial Investment Activities 654,062

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 3261 · 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.