Profit Margin
13.2%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 523
NAICS 523 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
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 July 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
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.
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.
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%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
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.
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: Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities reports a higher net margin than 87% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 55% of that same 77-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 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.
- Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction 1,051,261
- Health and Personal Care Stores 1,066,142
- Gasoline Stations 1,016,960
Benchmarking Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities
- Net margin: 13.2% vs sector. Browse Finance and Insurance
- 113,885 establishments, 1,042,226 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,779 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 523 · 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.