Profit Margin
5.5%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 448
NAICS 448 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores 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 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.
Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores sits in the 66th percentile for employment and the 65th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/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
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 FY2020–2026SBA 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
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores ranks #26 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #26 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (5.5% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,505,822 here).
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 448 · 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
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.