Information ·NAICS 517

NAICS 517 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

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 July 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

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.

Profit Margin

7.0%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

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.

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%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
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 FY2020–2026

SBA 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

View SBA lending rankings →

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.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

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

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Telecommunications

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 · 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.