Profit Margin
13.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5414
NAICS 5414 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Specialized Design Services - Industry Benchmarks
$71,368/yr average annual pay, with 2,178 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5414.
- 13.7%
- Net margin
- 130K
- Workers employed
- $71,368/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $728M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5414
Specialized Design Services runs a 13.7% pre-tax net margin - above average for US industries - across 38K establishments employing 130K workers.
- 13.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 130K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $71,368/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $728M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Specialized Design Services
Specialized Design Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 13.7% net margin (above average for US industries), $35.7B in aggregate receipts across 356,019 returns, averaging $100.2M 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.
Total Receipts
$35.7B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$4.9B
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.
Where each dollar of Specialized Design Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Specialized Design Services margin vs national reference points
Specialized Design Services net margin 45.6%
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
42,168 returns 12%
Margin: 5.1% · Receipts: $22.2B
Sole Proprietorship
313,851 returns 88%
Margin: 27.8% · Receipts: $13.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 356,019
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $100.2M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $9.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 3.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Graphic Design Services NAICS 54143 | N/A |
| Industrial Design Services NAICS 54142 | N/A |
| Interior Design Services NAICS 54141 | N/A |
| Other Specialized Design Services NAICS 54149 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 23,131 |
| New York | 12,439 |
| Florida | 11,245 |
| Texas | 8,803 |
| Illinois | 6,303 |
| Georgia | 4,961 |
| New Jersey | 3,749 |
| Ohio | 3,598 |
| North Carolina | 3,376 |
| Pennsylvania | 3,357 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA 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 71
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Specialized Design Services?
$35.7B in total annual receipts across all Specialized Design Services businesses. Average per business: $100.2M.
How profitable is Specialized Design Services?
13.7% net profit margin, above average for US industries.
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.
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: Specialized Design Services reports a higher net margin than 89% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 39% of that same 259-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.
Benchmarking Specialized Design Services
- Net margin: 13.7% vs sector. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 37,685 establishments, 130,292 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 2,178 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 5414 · 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.