Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 493

NAICS 493 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Warehousing and Storage - Industry Benchmarks

541 SBA loans on record, $633M in volume, for NAICS 493.

4.7%
Net margin
N/A
Workers employed
N/A
Avg payroll / employee
$633M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 493

Warehousing and Storage runs a 4.7% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 22K establishments employing N/A workers.

4.7%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
N/A
Workers employed (Census CBP)
N/A
Avg payroll / employee
$633M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Warehousing and Storage's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Warehousing and Storage 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 Warehousing and Storage

Warehousing and Storage sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a 4.7% net margin (below the national median), $24.3B in aggregate receipts across 4,313 returns, averaging $5.6B per establishment.

21,521 establishments employ N/A workers. Pennsylvania leads employment, followed by Indiana and North Carolina.

Profit Margin

4.7%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$24.3B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$1.1B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

N/A

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

N/A

Annual compensation

Establishments

21,521

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

establishment count increased by 1,542. 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 Warehousing and Storage revenue goes

Warehousing and Storage margin vs national reference points

Warehousing and Storage net margin 15.7%
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
4,313 returns 100%

Margin: 4.7% · Receipts: $24.3B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
4,313
Avg Receipts per Business
$5.6B

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Warehousing and Storage

NAICS 4931

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
Pennsylvania 92,955
Indiana 51,626
North Carolina 49,295
Virginia 33,443
Arizona 29,351
South Carolina 27,508
Massachusetts 19,606
Iowa 16,487
Utah 16,419
Mississippi 14,689

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

541

Total Loan Volume

$633M

Avg Loan Size

$1170K

Jobs Supported

5,760

Program Breakdown

7(a) 387 (72%)
504 154 (28%)

Top SBA Lender

Bank Five Nine

19 loans in this industry

New Business Share

30.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
71
2021
108
2022
80
2023
92
2024
86
2025
94
2026
10

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Warehousing and Storage?
$24.3B in total annual receipts across all Warehousing and Storage businesses. Average per business: $5.6B.
How profitable is Warehousing and Storage?
4.7% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Warehousing and Storage?
21,521 business establishments.
What is the average payroll per employee in Warehousing and Storage?
Average payroll data for Warehousing and Storage is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Warehousing and Storage employment?
Pennsylvania leads with 92,955 workers. Indiana (51,626) and North Carolina (49,295) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Warehousing and Storage receive?
Warehousing and Storage businesses received 541 SBA loans totaling $633 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1170K. These loans supported 5,760 jobs at origination. Most lending (72%) 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.

According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #37 of 75 at that same detail level.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Benchmarking Warehousing and Storage

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 493 · 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

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.