Employment
1,185,718
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 492
NAICS 492 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Couriers and Messengers - Industry Benchmarks
1,546 SBA loans on record, $770M in volume, for NAICS 492.
- 16K
- Establishments
- 1.2M
- Workers employed
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $770M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 492
California leads Couriers and Messengers activity nationally, across 16K establishments employing 1.2M workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 16K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 1.2M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $770M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Couriers and Messengers's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Couriers and Messengers 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 Couriers and Messengers
Couriers and Messengers sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
16,226 establishments employ 1,185,718 workers (73.1/location). California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Couriers and Messengers sits in the 61st percentile for employment among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
N/A
Annual compensation
Establishments
16,226
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 12,264; establishment count decreased by 807. 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
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).
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
1,406,958 returns 100%
Margin: 15.1% · Receipts: $18.8B
Financial Detail
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 73.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Couriers and Express Delivery Services NAICS 4921 | N/A |
| Local Messengers and Local Delivery NAICS 4922 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 155,857 |
| Texas | 96,073 |
| Florida | 79,538 |
| Illinois | 66,805 |
| New York | 59,946 |
| New Jersey | 50,436 |
| Pennsylvania | 46,969 |
| Georgia | 46,578 |
| Ohio | 38,855 |
| North Carolina | 35,879 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,546
Total Loan Volume
$770M
Avg Loan Size
$498K
Jobs Supported
23,681
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,524 (99%)
504 22 (1%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
117 loans in this industry
New Business Share
36.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 219
2021 245
2022 208
2023 244
2024 280
2025 302
2026 48
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Couriers and Messengers?
16,226 business establishments. Together they employ 1,185,718 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Couriers and Messengers?
Average payroll data for Couriers and Messengers is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Couriers and Messengers employment?
California leads with 155,857 workers. Texas (96,073) and Florida (79,538) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Couriers and Messengers receive?
Couriers and Messengers businesses received 1,546 SBA loans totaling $770 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $498K. These loans supported 23,681 jobs at origination. Most lending (99%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Couriers and Messengers, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Couriers and Messengers ranks #30 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,185,718 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 492 · 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.