Retail Trade ·NAICS 448

NAICS 448 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores - Industry Benchmarks

$25,830/yr average annual pay, with 1,450 SBA loans on record for NAICS 448.

5.5%
Net margin
1.5M
Workers employed
$25,830/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$469M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 448

Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores runs a 5.5% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 122K establishments employing 1.5M workers.

5.5%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
1.5M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$25,830/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$469M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores

Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores sits inside Retail Trade at a 5.5% net margin (below the national median), $220.0B in aggregate receipts across 49,620 returns, averaging $4.4B per establishment.

122,162 establishments employ 1,505,822 workers (12.3/location) at $25,830/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.

Profit Margin

5.5%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$220.0B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$12.2B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

1,505,822

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$25,830/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

122,162

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 55,944; establishment count increased by 1,227. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores revenue goes

Workforce scale

Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores margin vs national reference points

Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores net margin 18.5%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
49,620 returns 100%

Margin: 5.5% · Receipts: $220.0B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
49,620
Avg Receipts per Business
$4.4B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$38.9B
Avg Employees per Establishment
12.3

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Clothing Stores

NAICS 4481

 N/A
Jewelry, Luggage, and Leather Goods Stores

NAICS 4483

 N/A
Shoe Stores

NAICS 4482

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 212,712
Texas 146,201
Florida 131,112
New York 111,054
Illinois 56,807
New Jersey 51,768
Pennsylvania 49,096
Georgia 48,045
Ohio 42,783
North Carolina 42,298

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

1,450

Total Loan Volume

$469M

Avg Loan Size

$324K

Jobs Supported

7,734

Program Breakdown

7(a) 1,314 (91%)
504 136 (9%)

Top SBA Lender

TD Bank, National Association

132 loans in this industry

New Business Share

27.1% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
451
2021
532
2022
299
2023
111
2024
42
2025
14
2026
1

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores?
$220.0B in total annual receipts across all Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores businesses. Average per business: $4.4B.
How profitable is Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores?
5.5% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores?
122,162 business establishments. Together they employ 1,505,822 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores?
$25,830/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores employment?
California leads with 212,712 workers. Texas (146,201) and Florida (131,112) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores receive?
Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores businesses received 1,450 SBA loans totaling $469 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $324K. These loans supported 7,734 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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.

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.

Benchmarking Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores

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 448 · 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.