Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5414

NAICS 5414 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Specialized Design Services - Industry Benchmarks

$71,368/yr average annual pay, with 2,178 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5414.

5.1%
Net margin: 130K
Workers employed: $71,368/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $728M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 5414

Specialized Design Services runs a 5.1% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 38K establishments employing 130K workers.

5.1%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): 130K
Workers employed (Census CBP): $71,368/yr
Avg payroll / employee: $728M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Specialized Design Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Specialized Design 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 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023

Benchmarking Insights for Specialized Design Services

Specialized Design Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 5.1% net margin (below the national median), $22.2B in aggregate receipts across 42,168 returns, averaging $526.6M per establishment.

37,685 establishments employ 130,292 workers (3.5/location) at $71,368/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Florida.

Specialized Design Services sits in the 39th percentile for employment and the 50th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

5.1%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$22.2B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$1.1B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

130,292

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$71,368/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

37,685

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 941; establishment count increased by 382. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Specialized Design Services revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Specialized Design Services

Workforce scale

Establishment size, Specialized Design Services (Census SUSB)

Specialized Design Services margin vs national reference points

Specialized Design Services net margin 17.1%

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

42,168 returns

Margin: 5.1% · Receipts: $22.2B

Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022

313,851 returns

Margin: 27.8% · Receipts: $13.5B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 42,168
Avg Receipts per Business: $526.6M
Annual Payroll (Total): $9.3B
Avg Employees per Establishment: 3.5

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Graphic Design Services NAICS 54143	N/A	49,266	$65,029/yr
Industrial Design Services NAICS 54142	N/A	14,360	$109,297/yr
Interior Design Services NAICS 54141	N/A	55,286	$66,767/yr
Other Specialized Design Services NAICS 54149	N/A	11,380	$73,308/yr

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
California	23,131	6,824	$1.9B	$84,143/yr
New York	12,439	3,730	$1.0B	$82,815/yr
Florida	11,245	3,771	$764.8M	$68,010/yr
Texas	8,803	2,461	$562.4M	$63,884/yr
Illinois	6,303	1,689	$443.8M	$70,411/yr
Georgia	4,961	1,385	N/A	N/A
New Jersey	3,749	886	N/A	N/A
Ohio	3,598	785	$238.3M	$66,224/yr
North Carolina	3,376	1,192	$190.5M	$56,420/yr
Pennsylvania	3,357	978	$212.1M	$63,195/yr

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

2,178

Total Loan Volume

$728M

Avg Loan Size

$334K

Jobs Supported

10,316

Program Breakdown

7(a) 1,954 (90%)

504 224 (10%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

153 loans in this industry

New Business Share

20.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

226

2021

232

2022

289

2023

364

2024

466

2025

530

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Specialized Design Services?

$22.2B in total annual receipts across all Specialized Design Services businesses. Average per business: $526.6M.

How profitable is Specialized Design Services?

5.1% net profit margin, below the national median.

How many businesses are in Specialized Design Services?

37,685 business establishments. Together they employ 130,292 workers.

What is the average payroll per employee in Specialized Design Services?

$71,368/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 3.5 employees per establishment.

Which states have the most Specialized Design Services employment?

California leads with 23,131 workers. New York (12,439) and Florida (11,245) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Specialized Design Services receive?

Specialized Design Services businesses received 2,178 SBA loans totaling $728 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $334K. These loans supported 10,316 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Specialized Design Services, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Specialized Design Services ranks #157 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #63 of 126 at that same detail level.

Similar reported net margin

Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (5.1% here).

Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing 5.1% Cut and Sew Apparel Manufacturing 5.2% Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors 4.9%

Similar workforce scale

Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (130,292 here).

Paper and Paper Product Merchant Wholesalers 128,040 Performing Arts Companies 127,604 Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing 134,208

Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · 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 5414 · 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 Accessed 2026-07-06

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.