Employment
149,558
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 49221
NAICS 49221 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Local Messengers and Local Delivery - Industry Benchmarks
$52,835/yr average annual pay, with 431 SBA loans on record for NAICS 49221.
- 5K
- Establishments
- 150K
- Workers employed
- $52,835/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $188M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 49221
California leads Local Messengers and Local Delivery activity nationally, across 5K establishments employing 150K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 5K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 150K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $52,835/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $188M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Local Messengers and Local Delivery
Local Messengers and Local Delivery sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
5,367 establishments employ 149,558 workers (27.9/location) at $52,835/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$52,835/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
5,367
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 293; establishment count increased by 1. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $7.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 27.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Local Messengers and Local Delivery NAICS 492210 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 29,906 |
| Florida | 13,424 |
| New York | 12,677 |
| Illinois | 8,417 |
| Texas | 7,936 |
| Ohio | 6,358 |
| New Jersey | 6,319 |
| Pennsylvania | 4,933 |
| Washington | 3,888 |
| Michigan | 3,678 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
431
Total Loan Volume
$188M
Avg Loan Size
$436K
Jobs Supported
6,401
Program Breakdown
7(a) 424 (98%)
504 7 (2%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
55 loans in this industry
New Business Share
40.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 87
2021 72
2022 55
2023 61
2024 75
2025 66
2026 15
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Local Messengers and Local Delivery?
5,367 business establishments. Together they employ 149,558 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Local Messengers and Local Delivery?
$52,835/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 27.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Local Messengers and Local Delivery employment?
California leads with 29,906 workers. Florida (13,424) and New York (12,677) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Local Messengers and Local Delivery receive?
Local Messengers and Local Delivery businesses received 431 SBA loans totaling $188 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $436K. These loans supported 6,401 jobs at origination. Most lending (98%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 71% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Offices of Chiropractors 150,066
- Caterers 148,684
- Other Building Equipment Contractors 150,522
Benchmarking Local Messengers and Local Delivery
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 5,367 establishments, 149,558 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 431 SBA loans on record. SBA lending 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 49221 · Data year: 2023
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.