Profit Margin
4.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 3271
NAICS 3271 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$59,607/yr average annual pay, with 70 SBA loans on record for NAICS 3271.
- 4.6%
- Net margin
- 36K
- Workers employed
- $59,607/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $28M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 3271
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing runs a 4.6% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 1K establishments employing 36K workers.
- 4.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 36K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $59,607/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $28M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 4.6% net margin (below the national median), $22.1B in aggregate receipts across 2,365 returns, averaging $9.4B per establishment.
1,036 establishments employ 35,582 workers (34.4/location) at $59,607/yr average annual pay. Tennessee leads employment, followed by California and New York.
Total Receipts
$22.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$1.0B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
35,582
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$59,607/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,036
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 228; establishment count increased by 5. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing net margin 15.4%
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
2,365 returns 100%
Margin: 4.6% · Receipts: $22.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 2,365
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $9.4B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $2.1B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 34.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Clay Building Material and Refractories Manufacturing NAICS 32712 | N/A |
| Pottery, Ceramics, and Plumbing Fixture Manufacturing NAICS 32711 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Tennessee | 2,262 |
| California | 2,036 |
| New York | 1,462 |
| Alabama | 1,267 |
| Kentucky | 1,010 |
| Indiana | 796 |
| Massachusetts | 780 |
| West Virginia | 646 |
| Michigan | 594 |
| Arkansas | 575 |
Showing top 10 of 44 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
70
Total Loan Volume
$28M
Avg Loan Size
$405K
Jobs Supported
638
Program Breakdown
7(a) 61 (87%)
504 9 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
44.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 9
2021 7
2022 11
2023 11
2024 15
2025 16
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing?
$22.1B in total annual receipts across all Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $9.4B.
How profitable is Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing?
4.6% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing?
1,036 business establishments. Together they employ 35,582 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing?
$59,607/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 34.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing employment?
Tennessee leads with 2,262 workers. California (2,036) and New York (1,462) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing receive?
Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing businesses received 70 SBA loans totaling $28 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $405K. These loans supported 638 jobs at origination. Most lending (87%) 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: Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing reports a higher net margin than 46% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 15% of that same 259-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 Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing
- Net margin: 4.6% vs sector. Browse Manufacturing
- 1,036 establishments, 35,582 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 70 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 3271 · 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.