Employment
240,007
Total employees (Census CBP)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 42512
NAICS 42512 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers - Industry Benchmarks
$71,674/yr average annual pay, with 609 SBA loans on record for NAICS 42512.
- 4.1%
- Wholesale Trade sector margin
- 240K
- Workers employed
- $71,674/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $356M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 42512
California leads Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers 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)
- 240K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $71,674/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $356M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers
Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers sits inside Wholesale Trade, a sector that runs a 4.1% net margin overall.
34,595 establishments employ 240,007 workers (6.9/location) at $71,674/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$71,674/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
34,595
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 4,879; establishment count decreased by 1,224. 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)
- $17.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers NAICS 425120 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 28,408 |
| Texas | 25,055 |
| Florida | 16,200 |
| Illinois | 9,932 |
| Ohio | 9,610 |
| New York | 9,221 |
| Pennsylvania | 9,209 |
| North Carolina | 8,738 |
| Georgia | 8,086 |
| New Jersey | 7,333 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
609
Total Loan Volume
$356M
Avg Loan Size
$584K
Jobs Supported
3,584
Program Breakdown
7(a) 545 (89%)
504 64 (11%)
Top SBA Lender
Northeast Bank
44 loans in this industry
New Business Share
14.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 58
2021 76
2022 82
2023 90
2024 132
2025 152
2026 19
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 42512 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 Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers?
34,595 business establishments. Together they employ 240,007 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers?
$71,674/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers employment?
California leads with 28,408 workers. Texas (25,055) and Florida (16,200) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers receive?
Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers businesses received 609 SBA loans totaling $356 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $584K. These loans supported 3,584 jobs at origination. Most lending (89%) 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 82% 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 Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 34,595 establishments, 240,007 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 609 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 42512 · 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.