Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 488

NAICS 488 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Support Activities for Transportation - Industry Benchmarks

$66,808/yr average annual pay, with 2,595 SBA loans on record for NAICS 488.

4.6%
Net margin: 853K
Workers employed: $66,808/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.5B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 488

Support Activities for Transportation runs a 4.6% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 49K establishments employing 853K workers.

4.6%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 853K
Workers employed (Census CBP): $66,808/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $1.5B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Support Activities for Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Support Activities for Transportation 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 Support Activities for Transportation

Support Activities for Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a 4.6% net margin (below the national median), $252.4B in aggregate receipts across 43,975 returns, averaging $5.7B per establishment.

49,494 establishments employ 853,486 workers (17.2/location) at $66,808/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.

Support Activities for Transportation sits in the 49th percentile for employment and the 48th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

4.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$252.4B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$11.6B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

853,486

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$66,808/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

49,494

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 21,489; establishment count decreased by 551. 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 Support Activities for Transportation revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Support Activities for Transportation

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Support Activities for Transportation (Census SUSB)

Support Activities for Transportation margin vs national reference points

Support Activities for Transportation net margin 15.3%

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

43,975 returns 100%

Margin: 4.6% · Receipts: $252.4B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 43,975
Avg Receipts per Business: $5.7B
Annual Payroll (Total): $57.0B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 17.2

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Freight Transportation Arrangement NAICS 4885	N/A	324,765	$76,333/yr
Other Support Activities for Transportation NAICS 4889	N/A	22,272	N/A
Support Activities for Air Transportation NAICS 4881	N/A	245,625	$53,140/yr
Support Activities for Rail Transportation NAICS 4882	N/A	49,372	$67,688/yr
Support Activities for Road Transportation NAICS 4884	N/A	109,993	$49,297/yr
Support Activities for Water Transportation NAICS 4883	N/A	101,459	N/A

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
California	121,841	7,044	$9.2B	$75,456/yr
Texas	107,464	5,497	$6.7B	$62,089/yr
Florida	76,022	5,077	$4.3B	$56,954/yr
Illinois	48,189	2,613	$3.3B	$67,835/yr
Georgia	37,349	1,766	$2.3B	$61,848/yr
New York	36,816	2,549	$2.5B	$68,443/yr
New Jersey	32,151	1,574	$2.8B	$85,735/yr
Pennsylvania	26,472	1,378	$1.6B	$61,274/yr
Washington	22,980	1,205	$1.9B	$81,520/yr
North Carolina	19,664	1,224	$1.2B	$59,575/yr

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

2,595

Total Loan Volume

$1.5B

Avg Loan Size

$562K

Jobs Supported

24,834

Program Breakdown

7(a) 2,294 (88%)

504 301 (12%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

222 loans in this industry

New Business Share

25.1% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

283

2021

368

2022

417

2023

424

2024

500

2025

539

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Support Activities for Transportation?

$252.4B in total annual receipts across all Support Activities for Transportation businesses. Average per business: $5.7B.

How profitable is Support Activities for Transportation?

4.6% net profit margin, below the national median.

How many businesses are in Support Activities for Transportation?

49,494 business establishments. Together they employ 853,486 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Support Activities for Transportation?

$66,808/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 17.2 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Support Activities for Transportation employment?

California leads with 121,841 workers. Texas (107,464) and Florida (76,022) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Support Activities for Transportation receive?

Support Activities for Transportation businesses received 2,595 SBA loans totaling $1.5 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $562K. These loans supported 24,834 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Support Activities for Transportation, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Support Activities for Transportation ranks #39 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 #39 of 75 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (4.6% here).

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (853,486 here).

Miscellaneous Store Retailers 831,551 Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing 815,991 Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing 815,444

Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Transportation and Warehousing · 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 488 · 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.