Profit Margin
5.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4243
NAICS 4243 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions 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 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.
Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers sits in the 47th percentile for employment and the 58th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/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
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions 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, Apparel, Piece Goods, and Notions Merchant Wholesalers ranks #137 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 #52 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (5.7% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (172,343 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 4243 · 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.