Employment
28,755
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54135
NAICS 54135 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Building Inspection Services - Industry Benchmarks
$60,645/yr average annual pay, with 280 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54135.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 29K
- Workers employed
- $60,645/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $71M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54135
California leads Building Inspection 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 3.9% net margin.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 29K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $60,645/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $71M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Building Inspection Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Building Inspection Services 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Building Inspection Services
Building Inspection Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
7,496 establishments employ 28,755 workers (3.8/location) at $60,645/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Building Inspection Services sits in the 25th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$60,645/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
7,496
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 1,429; establishment count decreased by 272. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $1.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 3.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Building Inspection Services NAICS 541350 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 4,101 |
| Texas | 3,101 |
| Florida | 2,776 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,367 |
| Ohio | 919 |
| Colorado | 801 |
| New Jersey | 550 |
| Washington | 521 |
| Michigan | 500 |
| Arizona | 420 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
280
Total Loan Volume
$71M
Avg Loan Size
$252K
Jobs Supported
1,929
Program Breakdown
7(a) 276 (99%)
504 4 (1%)
Top SBA Lender
United Midwest Savings Bank National Association
33 loans in this industry
New Business Share
35.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 32
2021 24
2022 54
2023 51
2024 62
2025 46
2026 11
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Building Inspection Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54135 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 3.9% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Building Inspection Services?
7,496 business establishments. Together they employ 28,755 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Building Inspection Services?
$60,645/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 3.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Building Inspection Services employment?
California leads with 4,101 workers. Texas (3,101) and Florida (2,776) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Building Inspection Services receive?
Building Inspection Services businesses received 280 SBA loans totaling $71 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $252K. These loans supported 1,929 jobs at origination. Most lending (99%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Building Inspection Services, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Building Inspection Services ranks #415 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (28,755 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · 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 54135 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.