Employment
16,762
Total employees (Census CBP)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 424920
NAICS 424920 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$54,207/yr average annual pay, with 41 SBA loans on record for NAICS 424920.
- 4.1%
- Wholesale Trade sector margin
- 17K
- Workers employed
- $54,207/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $27M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 424920
Pennsylvania leads Book, Periodical, and Newspaper 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)
- 17K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $54,207/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $27M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers
Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade, a sector that runs a 4.1% net margin overall.
1,020 establishments employ 16,762 workers (16.4/location) at $54,207/yr average annual pay. Pennsylvania leads employment, followed by California and Georgia.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$54,207/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,020
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 2,735; establishment count decreased by 155. 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)
- $908.6M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 16.4
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 1,865 |
| California | 1,086 |
| Georgia | 947 |
| New York | 656 |
| Massachusetts | 614 |
| Utah | 612 |
| Missouri | 477 |
| Michigan | 269 |
| North Carolina | 154 |
| Washington | 144 |
Showing top 10 of 40 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
41
Total Loan Volume
$27M
Avg Loan Size
$654K
Jobs Supported
945
Program Breakdown
7(a) 36 (88%)
504 5 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
3 loans in this industry
New Business Share
9.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 4
2021 3
2022 6
2023 8
2024 13
2025 5
2026 2
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 424920 level. Pennsylvania leads this industry nationally. The broader Wholesale Trade sector runs a 4.1% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers?
1,020 business establishments. Together they employ 16,762 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers?
$54,207/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers employment?
Pennsylvania leads with 1,865 workers. California (1,086) and Georgia (947) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 41 SBA loans totaling $27 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $654K. These loans supported 945 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 26% of that same 801-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.
- Nonwoven Fabric Mills 16,687
- Automobile Driving Schools 16,610
- Support Activities for Printing 16,557
Benchmarking Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 1,020 establishments, 16,762 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 41 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 424920 · 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.