Profit Margin
7.0%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 517
NAICS 517 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Telecommunications - Industry Benchmarks
$91,984/yr average annual pay, with 596 SBA loans on record for NAICS 517.
- 7.0%
- Net margin
- 913K
- Workers employed
- $91,984/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $433M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 517
Telecommunications runs a 7.0% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 59K establishments employing 913K workers.
- 7.0%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 913K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $91,984/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $433M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Telecommunications's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Telecommunications 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 Telecommunications
Telecommunications sits inside Information at a 7.0% net margin (in line with the national median), $500.0B in aggregate receipts across 15,932 returns, averaging $31.4B per establishment.
58,992 establishments employ 912,645 workers (15.5/location) at $91,984/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Telecommunications sits in the 52nd percentile for employment and the 77th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$500.0B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$35.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
912,645
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$91,984/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
58,992
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 27,512; establishment count decreased by 1,190. 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)Where each dollar of Telecommunications revenue goes
Workforce scale
Telecommunications margin vs national reference points
Telecommunications net margin 23.4%
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
15,932 returns 100%
Margin: 7.0% · Receipts: $500.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 15,932
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $31.4B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $83.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 15.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Other Telecommunications NAICS 5179 | N/A |
| Satellite Telecommunications NAICS 5174 | N/A |
| Wired and Wireless Telecommunications Carriers NAICS 5173 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 97,501 |
| California | 84,257 |
| Florida | 62,599 |
| New York | 52,285 |
| Georgia | 41,118 |
| Pennsylvania | 38,966 |
| New Jersey | 31,172 |
| Washington | 22,643 |
| Arizona | 18,294 |
| Massachusetts | 16,922 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
596
Total Loan Volume
$433M
Avg Loan Size
$727K
Jobs Supported
7,963
Program Breakdown
7(a) 551 (92%)
504 45 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
38 loans in this industry
New Business Share
12.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 82
2021 123
2022 65
2023 92
2024 108
2025 106
2026 20
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Telecommunications?
$500.0B in total annual receipts across all Telecommunications businesses. Average per business: $31.4B.
How profitable is Telecommunications?
7.0% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Telecommunications?
58,992 business establishments. Together they employ 912,645 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Telecommunications?
$91,984/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 15.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Telecommunications employment?
Texas leads with 97,501 workers. California (84,257) and Florida (62,599) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Telecommunications receive?
Telecommunications businesses received 596 SBA loans totaling $433 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $727K. These loans supported 7,963 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Telecommunications, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Telecommunications ranks #37 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #17 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (7.0% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (912,645 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Information · 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 517 · 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.