Employment
69,851
Total employees (Census CBP)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 42391
NAICS 42391 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$75,897/yr average annual pay, with 612 SBA loans on record for NAICS 42391.
- 4.1%
- Wholesale Trade sector margin
- 70K
- Workers employed
- $75,897/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $388M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 42391
California leads Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies 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)
- 70K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $75,897/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $388M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade, a sector that runs a 4.1% net margin overall.
5,355 establishments employ 69,851 workers (13.0/location) at $75,897/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and Illinois.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$75,897/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
5,355
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 1,879; establishment count decreased by 49. 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)
- $5.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 13.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 423910 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 10,573 |
| Florida | 4,887 |
| Illinois | 3,756 |
| Wisconsin | 3,593 |
| Minnesota | 2,454 |
| New York | 2,028 |
| Colorado | 2,005 |
| New Jersey | 1,837 |
| Ohio | 1,612 |
| North Carolina | 1,611 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
612
Total Loan Volume
$388M
Avg Loan Size
$633K
Jobs Supported
4,396
Program Breakdown
7(a) 538 (88%)
504 74 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
38 loans in this industry
New Business Share
21.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 79
2021 116
2022 96
2023 85
2024 103
2025 119
2026 14
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 42391 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 Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
5,355 business establishments. Together they employ 69,851 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
$75,897/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 13.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 10,573 workers. Florida (4,887) and Illinois (3,756) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 612 SBA loans totaling $388 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $633K. These loans supported 4,396 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) 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 48% 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 Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 5,355 establishments, 69,851 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 612 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 42391 · 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.