Profit Margin
4.2%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 44
NAICS 44 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Retail Trade - Industry Benchmarks
$37,746/yr average annual pay, with 28,276 SBA loans on record for NAICS 44.
- 4.2%
- Net margin
- 16.0M
- Workers employed
- $37,746/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $19.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 44
Retail Trade runs a 4.2% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 1.0M establishments employing 16.0M workers.
- 4.2%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 16.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $37,746/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $19.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Retail Trade's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Retail Trade 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 Statistics of Income 2023 and Census County Business Patterns
Benchmarking Insights for Retail Trade
Retail Trade sits inside Retail Trade at a 4.2% net margin (below the national median), $6.4T in aggregate receipts.
1,043,373 establishments employ 16,046,207 workers (15.4/location) at $37,746/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$6.4T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$267.6B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
16,046,207
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$37,746/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,043,373
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 123,769; establishment count decreased by 2,517. 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 Retail Trade revenue goes
Workforce scale
Retail Trade margin vs national reference points
Retail Trade net margin 13.8%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $605.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 15.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers NAICS 444 | 6.0% |
| Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores NAICS 448 | 5.5% |
| Electronics and Appliance Stores NAICS 443 | 1.6% |
| Food and Beverage Stores NAICS 445 | 2.6% |
| Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores NAICS 442 | 5.2% |
| Gasoline Stations NAICS 447 | 1.0% |
| Health and Personal Care Stores NAICS 446 | 4.9% |
| Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers NAICS 441 | 2.0% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 1,702,044 |
| Texas | 1,382,827 |
| Florida | 1,146,619 |
| New York | 862,844 |
| Pennsylvania | 650,539 |
| Illinois | 571,091 |
| Ohio | 560,620 |
| North Carolina | 535,341 |
| Georgia | 513,434 |
| New Jersey | 465,759 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
28,276
Total Loan Volume
$19.9B
Avg Loan Size
$704K
Jobs Supported
243,937
Program Breakdown
7(a) 24,786 (88%)
504 3,490 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
1,452 loans in this industry
New Business Share
28.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 4,636
2021 6,536
2022 4,078
2023 3,835
2024 4,044
2025 4,499
2026 648
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Retail Trade?
$6.4T in total annual receipts across all Retail Trade businesses.
How profitable is Retail Trade?
4.2% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Retail Trade?
1,043,373 business establishments. Together they employ 16,046,207 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Retail Trade?
$37,746/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 15.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Retail Trade employment?
California leads with 1,702,044 workers. Texas (1,382,827) and Florida (1,146,619) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Retail Trade receive?
Retail Trade businesses received 28,276 SBA loans totaling $19.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $704K. These loans supported 243,937 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: Retail Trade reports a higher net margin than 11% of the 19 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 89% of that same 19-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.
- Accommodation and Food Services 14,608,170
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 13,454,862
- Manufacturing 12,335,234
Benchmarking Retail Trade
- Net margin: 4.2% vs sector. Browse Retail Trade
- 1,043,373 establishments, 16,046,207 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 28,276 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 44 · 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.