Profit Margin
5.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4243
NAICS 4243 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$75,316/yr average annual pay, with 1,043 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4243.
- 5.7%
- Net margin
- 172K
- Workers employed
- $75,316/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $782M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4243
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers runs a 5.7% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 13K establishments employing 172K workers.
- 5.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 172K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $75,316/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $782M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 5.7% net margin (below the national median), $135.5B in aggregate receipts across 22,748 returns, averaging $6.0B per establishment.
13,318 establishments employ 172,343 workers (12.9/location) at $75,316/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Total Receipts
$135.5B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$7.7B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
172,343
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$75,316/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
13,318
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 236; establishment count decreased by 345. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers net margin 18.8%
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
22,748 returns 100%
Margin: 5.7% · Receipts: $135.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 22,748
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $6.0B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $13.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 12.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Footwear Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42434 | N/A |
| Men's and Boys' Clothing and Furnishings Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42432 | N/A |
| Piece Goods, Notions, and Other Dry Goods Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42431 | N/A |
| Women's, Children's, and Infants' Clothing and Accessories Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42433 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 42,338 |
| New York | 27,889 |
| Texas | 10,016 |
| New Jersey | 9,152 |
| North Carolina | 8,620 |
| Florida | 8,065 |
| Massachusetts | 5,482 |
| Georgia | 4,540 |
| Washington | 3,449 |
| Ohio | 3,347 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,043
Total Loan Volume
$782M
Avg Loan Size
$750K
Jobs Supported
6,879
Program Breakdown
7(a) 879 (84%)
504 164 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
105 loans in this industry
New Business Share
13.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 107
2021 174
2022 133
2023 183
2024 204
2025 209
2026 33
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers?
$135.5B in total annual receipts across all Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $6.0B.
How profitable is Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers?
5.7% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers?
13,318 business establishments. Together they employ 172,343 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers?
$75,316/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 42,338 workers. New York (27,889) and Texas (10,016) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 1,043 SBA loans totaling $782 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $750K. These loans supported 6,879 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) 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: Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers reports a higher net margin than 56% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 47% 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.
Benchmarking Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers
- Net margin: 5.7% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 13,318 establishments, 172,343 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,043 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 4243 · 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.