Profit Margin
2.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4233
NAICS 4233 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$79,808/yr average annual pay, with 914 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4233.
- 2.3%
- Net margin
- 269K
- Workers employed
- $79,808/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $797M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4233
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers runs a 2.3% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 18K establishments employing 269K workers.
- 2.3%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 269K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $79,808/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $797M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 2.3% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $113.1B in aggregate receipts across 13,114 returns, averaging $8.6B per establishment.
18,121 establishments employ 269,086 workers (14.8/location) at $79,808/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Total Receipts
$113.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$2.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
269,086
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$79,808/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
18,121
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,969; establishment count increased by 179. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers net margin 7.5%
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
13,114 returns 100%
Margin: 2.3% · Receipts: $113.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 13,114
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $8.6B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $21.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Brick, Stone, and Related Construction Material Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42332 | N/A |
| Lumber, Plywood, Millwork, and Wood Panel Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42331 | N/A |
| Other Construction Material Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42339 | N/A |
| Roofing, Siding, and Insulation Material Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42333 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 27,023 |
| California | 24,427 |
| Florida | 20,788 |
| Pennsylvania | 11,968 |
| North Carolina | 11,560 |
| Georgia | 11,312 |
| Illinois | 9,882 |
| New Jersey | 9,844 |
| New York | 9,168 |
| Washington | 8,858 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
914
Total Loan Volume
$797M
Avg Loan Size
$872K
Jobs Supported
7,576
Program Breakdown
7(a) 755 (83%)
504 159 (17%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
38 loans in this industry
New Business Share
20.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 118
2021 155
2022 121
2023 119
2024 181
2025 200
2026 20
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers?
$113.1B in total annual receipts across all Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $8.6B.
How profitable is Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers?
2.3% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers?
18,121 business establishments. Together they employ 269,086 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers?
$79,808/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers employment?
Texas leads with 27,023 workers. California (24,427) and Florida (20,788) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 914 SBA loans totaling $797 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $872K. These loans supported 7,576 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) 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: Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers reports a higher net margin than 18% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 61% 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.
- Waste Collection 263,050
- Motor Vehicle Manufacturing 277,328
- Converted Paper Product Manufacturing 260,693
Benchmarking Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers
- Net margin: 2.3% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 18,121 establishments, 269,086 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 914 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 4233 · 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.