Profit Margin
4.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 42
NAICS 42 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Wholesale Trade - Industry Benchmarks
$90,505/yr average annual pay, with 18,090 SBA loans on record for NAICS 42.
- 4.1%
- Net margin
- 6.2M
- Workers employed
- $90,505/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $13.7B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 42
Wholesale Trade runs a 4.1% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 382K establishments employing 6.2M workers.
- 4.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 6.2M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $90,505/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $13.7B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Wholesale Trade's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Wholesale Trade 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 Statistics of Income 2023 and Census County Business Patterns
Benchmarking Insights for Wholesale Trade
Wholesale Trade sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 4.1% net margin (below the national median), $1.2T in aggregate receipts across 95,530 returns, averaging $12.7B per establishment.
382,081 establishments employ 6,236,357 workers (16.3/location) at $90,505/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$1.2T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$50.2B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
6,236,357
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$90,505/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
382,081
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 93,127; establishment count decreased by 6,625. 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 Wholesale Trade revenue goes
Workforce scale
Wholesale Trade margin vs national reference points
Wholesale Trade net margin 13.8%
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
0 returns N/A
Margin: N/A · Receipts: $0
Partnership
92,289 returns 97%
Margin: 4.1% · Receipts: $1.2T
S Corporation
3,241 returns 3%
Margin: N/A · Receipts: N/A
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 95,530
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $12.7B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $564.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 16.3
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods NAICS 423 | 2.9% |
| Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods NAICS 424 | 2.8% |
| Wholesale Electronic Markets and Agents and Brokers NAICS 425 | 13.0% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 809,519 |
| Texas | 566,990 |
| Florida | 365,417 |
| Illinois | 322,193 |
| New York | 315,835 |
| New Jersey | 272,397 |
| Pennsylvania | 249,480 |
| Ohio | 232,316 |
| Georgia | 219,978 |
| North Carolina | 209,564 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
18,090
Total Loan Volume
$13.7B
Avg Loan Size
$759K
Jobs Supported
147,911
Program Breakdown
7(a) 15,534 (86%)
504 2,556 (14%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
1,149 loans in this industry
New Business Share
17.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 2,202
2021 2,922
2022 2,572
2023 2,848
2024 3,529
2025 3,541
2026 476
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Wholesale Trade?
$1.2T in total annual receipts across all Wholesale Trade businesses. Average per business: $12.7B.
How profitable is Wholesale Trade?
4.1% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Wholesale Trade?
382,081 business establishments. Together they employ 6,236,357 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Wholesale Trade?
$90,505/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Wholesale Trade employment?
California leads with 809,519 workers. Texas (566,990) and Florida (365,417) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Wholesale Trade receive?
Wholesale Trade businesses received 18,090 SBA loans totaling $13.7 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $759K. These loans supported 147,911 jobs at origination. Most lending (86%) 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: Wholesale Trade reports a higher net margin than 5% of the 19 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 47% of that same 19-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.
- Transportation and Warehousing 6,548,924
- Other Services (except Public Administration) 5,616,494
- Finance and Insurance 6,991,623
Benchmarking Wholesale Trade
- Net margin: 4.1% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 382,081 establishments, 6,236,357 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 18,090 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 42 · 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.