Employment
7,786
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48839
NAICS 48839 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Other Support Activities for Water Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$81,691/yr average annual pay, with 50 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48839.
- 759
- Establishments
- 8K
- Workers employed
- $81,691/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $29M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48839
Louisiana leads Other Support Activities for Water Transportation activity nationally, across 759 establishments employing 8K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 759
- Business establishments (Census)
- 8K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $81,691/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $29M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Other Support Activities for Water Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Other Support Activities for Water 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 Other Support Activities for Water Transportation
Other Support Activities for Water Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
759 establishments employ 7,786 workers (10.3/location) at $81,691/yr average annual pay. Louisiana leads employment, followed by New Jersey and Washington.
Other Support Activities for Water Transportation sits in the 6th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$81,691/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
759
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 502; establishment count increased by 7. 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)
- $636.0M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 10.3
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Other Support Activities for Water Transportation NAICS 488390 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Louisiana | 2,289 |
| New Jersey | 347 |
| Washington | 154 |
| New York | 124 |
| Hawaii | 69 |
| Alaska | 66 |
| Rhode Island | 55 |
| Georgia | 11 |
| Oklahoma | 8 |
Showing top 10 of 33 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
50
Total Loan Volume
$29M
Avg Loan Size
$585K
Jobs Supported
742
Program Breakdown
7(a) 48 (96%)
504 2 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 5
2021 7
2022 5
2023 11
2024 10
2025 11
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Other Support Activities for Water Transportation?
759 business establishments. Together they employ 7,786 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Other Support Activities for Water Transportation?
$81,691/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 10.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Other Support Activities for Water Transportation employment?
Louisiana leads with 2,289 workers. New Jersey (347) and Washington (154) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Other Support Activities for Water Transportation receive?
Other Support Activities for Water Transportation businesses received 50 SBA loans totaling $29 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $585K. These loans supported 742 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Other Support Activities for Water Transportation, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Other Support Activities for Water Transportation ranks #516 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (7,786 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 48839 · 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.