Profit Margin
4.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 336
NAICS 336 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$82,654/yr average annual pay, with 1,027 SBA loans on record for NAICS 336.
- 4.3%
- Net margin
- 1.7M
- Workers employed
- $82,654/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $921M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 336
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing runs a 4.3% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 12K establishments employing 1.7M workers.
- 4.3%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.7M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $82,654/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $921M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Transportation Equipment Manufacturing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Transportation Equipment 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 Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 4.3% net margin (below the national median), $1.2T in aggregate receipts across 9,796 returns, averaging $122.2B per establishment.
11,691 establishments employ 1,682,910 workers (143.9/location) at $82,654/yr average annual pay. Michigan leads employment, followed by Indiana and California.
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing sits in the 70th percentile for employment and the 43rd percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$1.2T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$51.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,682,910
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$82,654/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
11,691
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 27,891; establishment count increased by 126. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Where each dollar of Transportation Equipment Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing net margin 14.3%
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
9,796 returns 100%
Margin: 4.3% · Receipts: $1.2T
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 9,796
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $122.2B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $139.1B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 143.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing NAICS 3364 | 5.4% |
| Motor Vehicle Body and Trailer Manufacturing NAICS 3362 | N/A |
| Motor Vehicle Manufacturing NAICS 3361 | 3.5% |
| Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing NAICS 3363 | N/A |
| Other Transportation Equipment Manufacturing NAICS 3369 | 8.5% |
| Railroad Rolling Stock Manufacturing NAICS 3365 | N/A |
| Ship and Boat Building NAICS 3366 | 7.0% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Michigan | 180,036 |
| Indiana | 144,469 |
| California | 119,600 |
| Ohio | 111,559 |
| Texas | 90,747 |
| Alabama | 75,655 |
| Kentucky | 69,384 |
| South Carolina | 55,405 |
| Illinois | 53,904 |
| Florida | 44,378 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,027
Total Loan Volume
$921M
Avg Loan Size
$897K
Jobs Supported
18,338
Program Breakdown
7(a) 860 (84%)
504 167 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
52 loans in this industry
New Business Share
19.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 116
2021 195
2022 144
2023 156
2024 184
2025 205
2026 27
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Transportation Equipment Manufacturing?
$1.2T in total annual receipts across all Transportation Equipment Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $122.2B.
How profitable is Transportation Equipment Manufacturing?
4.3% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Transportation Equipment Manufacturing?
11,691 business establishments. Together they employ 1,682,910 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Transportation Equipment Manufacturing?
$82,654/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 143.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Transportation Equipment Manufacturing employment?
Michigan leads with 180,036 workers. Indiana (144,469) and California (119,600) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Transportation Equipment Manufacturing receive?
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing businesses received 1,027 SBA loans totaling $921 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $897K. These loans supported 18,338 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Transportation Equipment Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing ranks #23 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 #43 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (4.3% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,682,910 here).
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 336 · 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
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.