Profit Margin
4.9%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4234
NAICS 4234 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$117,516/yr average annual pay, with 1,364 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4234.
- 4.9%
- Net margin
- 670K
- Workers employed
- $117,516/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $868M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4234
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers runs a 4.9% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 30K establishments employing 670K workers.
- 4.9%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 670K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $117,516/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $868M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 4.9% net margin (below the national median), $274.6B in aggregate receipts across 36,317 returns, averaging $7.6B per establishment.
29,863 establishments employ 670,408 workers (22.4/location) at $117,516/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$274.6B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$13.3B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
670,408
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$117,516/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
29,863
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,328; establishment count decreased by 3,792. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers net margin 16.2%
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
36,317 returns 100%
Margin: 4.9% · Receipts: $274.6B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 36,317
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $7.6B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $78.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 22.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42343 | N/A |
| Medical, Dental, and Hospital Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42345 | N/A |
| Office Equipment Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42342 | N/A |
| Ophthalmic Goods Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42346 | N/A |
| Other Commercial Equipment Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42344 | N/A |
| Other Professional Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42349 | N/A |
| Photographic Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42341 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 111,126 |
| Texas | 43,103 |
| Florida | 41,070 |
| Illinois | 40,030 |
| New York | 35,557 |
| Pennsylvania | 32,675 |
| New Jersey | 30,744 |
| Massachusetts | 28,602 |
| North Carolina | 25,230 |
| Georgia | 24,763 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,364
Total Loan Volume
$868M
Avg Loan Size
$636K
Jobs Supported
10,563
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,253 (92%)
504 111 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
85 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 167
2021 187
2022 159
2023 221
2024 320
2025 280
2026 30
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
$274.6B in total annual receipts across all Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $7.6B.
How profitable is Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
4.9% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
29,863 business establishments. Together they employ 670,408 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
$117,516/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 22.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 111,126 workers. Texas (43,103) and Florida (41,070) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 1,364 SBA loans totaling $868 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $636K. These loans supported 10,563 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) 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: Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers reports a higher net margin than 48% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 79% 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.
- Business Support Services 673,396
- Plastics Product Manufacturing 677,305
- Other Financial Investment Activities 654,062
Benchmarking Professional and Commercial Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
- Net margin: 4.9% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 29,863 establishments, 670,408 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,364 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 4234 · 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.