Employment
189,468
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54131
NAICS 54131 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Architectural Services - Industry Benchmarks
$98,717/yr average annual pay, with 936 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54131.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 189K
- Workers employed
- $98,717/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $433M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54131
California leads Architectural Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 189K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $98,717/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $433M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Architectural Services
Architectural Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
22,805 establishments employ 189,468 workers (8.3/location) at $98,717/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$98,717/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
22,805
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 7,386; establishment count increased by 186. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $18.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 8.3
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Architectural Services NAICS 541310 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 28,989 |
| New York | 17,536 |
| Texas | 16,005 |
| Florida | 9,849 |
| Illinois | 8,573 |
| Massachusetts | 7,518 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,527 |
| Washington | 6,439 |
| Ohio | 5,529 |
| Colorado | 5,495 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
936
Total Loan Volume
$433M
Avg Loan Size
$462K
Jobs Supported
6,776
Program Breakdown
7(a) 776 (83%)
504 160 (17%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
62 loans in this industry
New Business Share
11.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 106
2021 130
2022 123
2023 137
2024 191
2025 226
2026 23
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Architectural Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54131 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Architectural Services?
22,805 business establishments. Together they employ 189,468 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Architectural Services?
$98,717/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 8.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Architectural Services employment?
California leads with 28,989 workers. New York (17,536) and Texas (16,005) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Architectural Services receive?
Architectural Services businesses received 936 SBA loans totaling $433 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $462K. These loans supported 6,776 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 77% of that same 551-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Architectural Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 22,805 establishments, 189,468 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 936 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 54131 · 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.