Employment
135,951
Total employees (Census CBP)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 42311
NAICS 42311 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$88,181/yr average annual pay, with 328 SBA loans on record for NAICS 42311.
- 4.1%
- Wholesale Trade sector margin
- 136K
- Workers employed
- $88,181/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $262M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 42311
California leads Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Wholesale Trade sector runs a 4.1% net margin.
- 4.1%
- Wholesale Trade sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 136K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $88,181/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $262M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers
Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade, a sector that runs a 4.1% net margin overall.
6,117 establishments employ 135,951 workers (22.2/location) at $88,181/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$88,181/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
6,117
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 7,868; establishment count increased by 70. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $12.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 22.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 423110 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 13,052 |
| Texas | 11,455 |
| Florida | 6,506 |
| New Jersey | 6,006 |
| Pennsylvania | 5,188 |
| Ohio | 4,777 |
| Wisconsin | 4,479 |
| Indiana | 4,309 |
| Missouri | 3,848 |
| Michigan | 3,816 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
328
Total Loan Volume
$262M
Avg Loan Size
$799K
Jobs Supported
2,793
Program Breakdown
7(a) 256 (78%)
504 72 (22%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
23 loans in this industry
New Business Share
16.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 48
2021 47
2022 50
2023 60
2024 51
2025 64
2026 8
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 42311 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Wholesale Trade sector runs a 4.1% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers?
6,117 business establishments. Together they employ 135,951 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers?
$88,181/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 22.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 13,052 workers. Texas (11,455) and Florida (6,506) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 328 SBA loans totaling $262 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $799K. These loans supported 2,793 jobs at origination. Most lending (78%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 68% of that same 551-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 6,117 establishments, 135,951 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 328 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 42311 · 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.