Employment
49,372
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48821
NAICS 48821 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Support Activities for Rail Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$67,688/yr average annual pay, with 25 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48821.
- 2K
- Establishments
- 49K
- Workers employed
- $67,688/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $25M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48821
Illinois leads Support Activities for Rail Transportation activity nationally, across 2K establishments employing 49K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 2K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 49K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $67,688/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $25M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Support Activities for Rail Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Support Activities for Rail 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Support Activities for Rail Transportation
Support Activities for Rail Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
1,695 establishments employ 49,372 workers (29.1/location) at $67,688/yr average annual pay. Illinois leads employment, followed by Kentucky and California.
Support Activities for Rail Transportation sits in the 38th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$67,688/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,695
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 4,328; establishment count decreased by 66. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $3.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 29.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Support Activities for Rail Transportation NAICS 488210 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 4,651 |
| Kentucky | 3,758 |
| California | 3,459 |
| Georgia | 2,669 |
| Ohio | 2,638 |
| Florida | 2,318 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,650 |
| Missouri | 1,176 |
| Washington | 910 |
| North Carolina | 655 |
Showing top 10 of 44 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
25
Total Loan Volume
$25M
Avg Loan Size
$1019K
Jobs Supported
259
Program Breakdown
7(a) 20 (80%)
504 5 (20%)
Top SBA Lender
The Fidelity Bank
2 loans in this industry
New Business Share
8.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 3
2021 4
2022 5
2023 4
2024 3
2025 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Support Activities for Rail Transportation?
1,695 business establishments. Together they employ 49,372 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Support Activities for Rail Transportation?
$67,688/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 29.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Support Activities for Rail Transportation employment?
Illinois leads with 4,651 workers. Kentucky (3,758) and California (3,459) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Support Activities for Rail Transportation receive?
Support Activities for Rail Transportation businesses received 25 SBA loans totaling $25 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1019K. These loans supported 259 jobs at origination. Most lending (80%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Support Activities for Rail Transportation, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Support Activities for Rail Transportation ranks #344 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (49,372 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 48821 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.