NAICS 3271 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

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 August 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

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

Clay Product and Refractory 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 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.

Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing sits in the 15th percentile for employment and the 47th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

4.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

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.

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Where each dollar of Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing (Census SUSB)

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%/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

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	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Clay Building Material and Refractories Manufacturing NAICS 32712	N/A	23,500	$62,594/yr
Pottery, Ceramics, and Plumbing Fixture Manufacturing NAICS 32711	N/A	N/A	N/A

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Tennessee	2,262	30	$135.8M	$60,052/yr
California	2,036	114	$118.1M	$57,988/yr
New York	1,462	44	$102.8M	$70,347/yr
Alabama	1,267	21	$80.6M	$63,581/yr
Kentucky	1,010	15	$58.1M	$57,490/yr
Indiana	796	30	$55.6M	$69,824/yr
Massachusetts	780	21	$58.2M	$74,569/yr
West Virginia	646	13	$37.7M	$58,344/yr
Michigan	594	22	N/A	N/A
Arkansas	575	9	$34.6M	$60,160/yr

Showing top 10 of 44 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

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

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

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.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

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

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Clay Product and Refractory Manufacturing ranks #221 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 #67 of 126 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (4.6% here).

Other Support Services 4.6% Consumer Goods Rental 4.6% Boiler, Tank, and Shipping Container Manufacturing 4.5%

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (35,582 here).

Spring and Wire Product Manufacturing 34,731 Electric Lighting Equipment Manufacturing 34,408 Pesticide, Fertilizer, and Other Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing 37,403

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 3271 · 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.