Profit Margin
13.2%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 523
NAICS 523 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities - Industry Benchmarks
$260,466/yr average annual pay, with 1,779 SBA loans on record for NAICS 523.
- 13.2%
- Net margin
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- $260,466/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 523
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities runs a 13.2% pre-tax net margin - above average for US industries - across 114K establishments employing 1.0M workers.
- 13.2%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $260,466/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities 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 Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities sits inside Finance and Insurance at a 13.2% net margin (above average for US industries), $327.5B in aggregate receipts across 55,808 returns, averaging $5.9B per establishment.
113,885 establishments employ 1,042,226 workers (9.2/location) at $260,466/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Pennsylvania.
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities sits in the 55th percentile for employment and the 91st percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$327.5B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$43.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,042,226
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$260,466/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
113,885
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 48,360; establishment count increased by 1,109. 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 Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities revenue goes
Workforce scale
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities margin vs national reference points
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities net margin 43.9%
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
55,808 returns 100%
Margin: 13.2% · Receipts: $327.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 55,808
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $5.9B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $271.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Other Financial Investment Activities NAICS 5239 | 18.5% |
| Securities and Commodity Contracts Intermediation and Brokerage NAICS 5231 | 8.2% |
| Securities and Commodity Exchanges NAICS 5232 | 2.0% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 192,522 |
| California | 113,195 |
| Pennsylvania | 61,450 |
| Illinois | 61,151 |
| Florida | 59,979 |
| Massachusetts | 52,238 |
| New Jersey | 45,194 |
| Minnesota | 21,011 |
| Ohio | 20,939 |
| Connecticut | 19,847 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,779
Total Loan Volume
$1.1B
Avg Loan Size
$629K
Jobs Supported
7,456
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,519 (85%)
504 260 (15%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
298 loans in this industry
New Business Share
15.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 342
2021 355
2022 250
2023 234
2024 255
2025 304
2026 39
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities?
$327.5B in total annual receipts across all Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities businesses. Average per business: $5.9B.
How profitable is Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities?
13.2% net profit margin, above average for US industries.
How many businesses are in Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities?
113,885 business establishments. Together they employ 1,042,226 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities?
$260,466/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities employment?
New York leads with 192,522 workers. California (113,195) and Pennsylvania (61,450) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities receive?
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities businesses received 1,779 SBA loans totaling $1.1 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $629K. These loans supported 7,456 jobs at origination. Most lending (85%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities ranks #35 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 #7 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (13.2% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,042,226 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Finance and Insurance · 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 523 · 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.