Profit Margin
1.9%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4235
NAICS 4235 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$86,059/yr average annual pay, with 227 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4235.
- 1.9%
- Net margin
- 147K
- Workers employed
- $86,059/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $215M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4235
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers runs a 1.9% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 9K establishments employing 147K workers.
- 1.9%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 147K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $86,059/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $215M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) 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 Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 1.9% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $128.0B in aggregate receipts across 6,122 returns, averaging $20.9B per establishment.
8,892 establishments employ 147,358 workers (16.6/location) at $86,059/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Illinois.
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers sits in the 42nd percentile for employment and the 13th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$128.0B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$2.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
147,358
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$86,059/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
8,892
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 3,802; establishment count decreased by 40. 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 Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers net margin 6.5%
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
6,122 returns 100%
Margin: 1.9% · Receipts: $128.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 6,122
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $20.9B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $12.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 16.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Coal and Other Mineral and Ore Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42352 | N/A |
| Metal Service Centers and Other Metal Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42351 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 19,436 |
| California | 13,647 |
| Illinois | 9,584 |
| Ohio | 9,536 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,932 |
| Michigan | 6,833 |
| Indiana | 6,491 |
| Florida | 5,646 |
| Georgia | 4,614 |
| New York | 4,405 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
227
Total Loan Volume
$215M
Avg Loan Size
$945K
Jobs Supported
2,137
Program Breakdown
7(a) 194 (85%)
504 33 (15%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
24 loans in this industry
New Business Share
28.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 23
2021 37
2022 41
2023 27
2024 51
2025 38
2026 10
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers?
$128.0B in total annual receipts across all Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $20.9B.
How profitable is Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers?
1.9% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers?
8,892 business establishments. Together they employ 147,358 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers?
$86,059/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers employment?
Texas leads with 19,436 workers. California (13,647) and Illinois (9,584) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 227 SBA loans totaling $215 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $945K. These loans supported 2,137 jobs at origination. Most lending (85%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) 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, Metal and Mineral (except Petroleum) Merchant Wholesalers ranks #150 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 #109 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (1.9% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (147,358 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 4235 · 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.