Employment
158,265
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541380
NAICS 541380 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Testing Laboratories - Industry Benchmarks
$75,284/yr average annual pay, with 317 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541380.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 158K
- Workers employed
- $75,284/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $197M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541380
Texas leads Testing Laboratories 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)
- 158K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $75,284/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $197M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Testing Laboratories
Testing Laboratories sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
7,463 establishments employ 158,265 workers (21.2/location) at $75,284/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Illinois.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$75,284/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
7,463
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 3,550; establishment count decreased by 25. 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)
- $11.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 21.2
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 21,391 |
| California | 17,332 |
| Illinois | 7,415 |
| Ohio | 7,146 |
| New Jersey | 6,986 |
| New York | 6,390 |
| Louisiana | 5,638 |
| Florida | 5,227 |
| Massachusetts | 4,026 |
| North Carolina | 3,731 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
317
Total Loan Volume
$197M
Avg Loan Size
$622K
Jobs Supported
3,575
Program Breakdown
7(a) 282 (89%)
504 35 (11%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
18 loans in this industry
New Business Share
30.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 46
2021 52
2022 42
2023 57
2024 48
2025 62
2026 10
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Testing Laboratories?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541380 level. Texas 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 Testing Laboratories?
7,463 business establishments. Together they employ 158,265 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Testing Laboratories?
$75,284/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 21.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Testing Laboratories employment?
Texas leads with 21,391 workers. California (17,332) and Illinois (7,415) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Testing Laboratories receive?
Testing Laboratories businesses received 317 SBA loans totaling $197 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $622K. These loans supported 3,575 jobs at origination. Most lending (89%) 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 81% of that same 801-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.
- Motion Picture and Video Production 158,632
- Animal (except Poultry) Slaughtering 159,965
- Amusement and Theme Parks 161,508
Benchmarking Testing Laboratories
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 7,463 establishments, 158,265 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 317 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 541380 · 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.