NAICS 4411 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Automobile Dealers - Industry Benchmarks

$76,358/yr average annual pay, with 2,096 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4411.

1.5%
Net margin: 1.3M
Workers employed: $76,358/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.8B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 4411

Automobile Dealers runs a 1.5% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 47K establishments employing 1.3M workers.

1.5%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 1.3M
Workers employed (Census CBP): $76,358/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.8B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Automobile Dealers's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Automobile Dealers 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 Automobile Dealers

Automobile Dealers sits inside Retail Trade at a 1.5% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $715.6B in aggregate receipts across 44,973 returns, averaging $15.9B per establishment.

47,057 establishments employ 1,293,388 workers (27.5/location) at $76,358/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.

Automobile Dealers sits in the 91st percentile for employment and the 9th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

1.5%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$715.6B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$10.8B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

1,293,388

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$76,358/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

47,057

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment decreased by 5,269; establishment count decreased by 385. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Automobile Dealers revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Automobile Dealers

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Automobile Dealers (Census SUSB)

Automobile Dealers margin vs national reference points

Automobile Dealers net margin 5.0%

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

44,973 returns 100%

Margin: 1.5% · Receipts: $715.6B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 44,973
Avg Receipts per Business: $15.9B
Annual Payroll (Total): $98.8B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 27.5

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
New Car Dealers NAICS 44111	N/A	1,131,340	$79,300/yr
Used Car Dealers NAICS 44112	N/A	162,048	$55,819/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
California	124,618	3,625	$10.9B	$87,728/yr
Texas	124,436	4,269	$10.2B	$81,645/yr
Florida	99,767	3,427	$8.3B	$83,073/yr
New York	54,219	2,046	$4.2B	$77,220/yr
Pennsylvania	53,836	2,077	$3.5B	$65,572/yr
Ohio	50,655	1,823	$3.5B	$69,680/yr
Illinois	49,195	1,590	$3.6B	$73,165/yr
Georgia	43,999	1,529	$3.4B	$77,073/yr
North Carolina	43,333	1,848	$3.2B	$73,800/yr
Michigan	41,346	1,507	$3.0B	$73,269/yr

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

2,096

Total Loan Volume

$1.8B

Avg Loan Size

$842K

Jobs Supported

19,288

Program Breakdown

7(a) 1,555 (74%)

504 541 (26%)

Top SBA Lender

Northeast Bank

165 loans in this industry

New Business Share

17.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

263

2021

371

2022

301

2023

312

2024

351

2025

437

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Automobile Dealers?

$715.6B in total annual receipts across all Automobile Dealers businesses. Average per business: $15.9B.

How profitable is Automobile Dealers?

1.5% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.

How many businesses are in Automobile Dealers?

47,057 business establishments. Together they employ 1,293,388 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Automobile Dealers?

$76,358/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 27.5 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Automobile Dealers employment?

California leads with 124,618 workers. Texas (124,436) and Florida (99,767) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Automobile Dealers receive?

Automobile Dealers businesses received 2,096 SBA loans totaling $1.8 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $842K. These loans supported 19,288 jobs at origination. Most lending (74%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Automobile Dealers, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Automobile Dealers ranks #24 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 #115 of 126 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (1.5% here).

Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores 1.7% Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers 1.7% Household Appliances and Electrical and Electronic Goods Merchant Wholesalers 1.8%

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,293,388 here).

Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services 1,297,995 Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities 1,310,504 Outpatient Care Centers 1,345,946

Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Retail 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 4411 · 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 Accessed 2026-07-06

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.