Profit Margin
2.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4233
NAICS 4233 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers 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 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.
Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers sits in the 61st percentile for employment and the 18th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/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
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers ranks #102 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 #103 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (2.3% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (269,086 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Wholesale Trade · 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 · 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.