Profit Margin
1.9%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5415
NAICS 5415 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Computer Systems Design and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$122,296/yr average annual pay, with 5,070 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5415.
- 1.9%
- Net margin
- 2.1M
- Workers employed
- $122,296/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5415
Computer Systems Design and Related Services runs a 1.9% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 146K establishments employing 2.1M workers.
- 1.9%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 2.1M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $122,296/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Computer Systems Design and Related Services
Computer Systems Design and Related Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 1.9% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $302.2B in aggregate receipts across 140,975 returns, averaging $2.1B per establishment.
145,813 establishments employ 2,050,626 workers (14.1/location) at $122,296/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Virginia and Texas.
Total Receipts
$302.2B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$5.8B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
2,050,626
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$122,296/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
145,813
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 75,947; establishment count increased by 602. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Computer Systems Design and Related Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Computer Systems Design and Related Services margin vs national reference points
Computer Systems Design and Related Services net margin 6.4%
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
140,975 returns 100%
Margin: 1.9% · Receipts: $302.2B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 140,975
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $2.1B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $250.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Computer Systems Design and Related Services NAICS 54151 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 299,029 |
| Virginia | 204,399 |
| Texas | 192,176 |
| Florida | 96,162 |
| Georgia | 92,751 |
| New York | 90,348 |
| Maryland | 86,551 |
| New Jersey | 85,654 |
| Illinois | 80,067 |
| Pennsylvania | 68,334 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
5,070
Total Loan Volume
$2.5B
Avg Loan Size
$488K
Jobs Supported
54,001
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4,770 (94%)
504 300 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
306 loans in this industry
New Business Share
14.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 640
2021 644
2022 624
2023 735
2024 1,047
2025 1,214
2026 166
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Computer Systems Design and Related Services?
$302.2B in total annual receipts across all Computer Systems Design and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $2.1B.
How profitable is Computer Systems Design and Related Services?
1.9% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Computer Systems Design and Related Services?
145,813 business establishments. Together they employ 2,050,626 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Computer Systems Design and Related Services?
$122,296/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Computer Systems Design and Related Services employment?
California leads with 299,029 workers. Virginia (204,399) and Texas (192,176) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Computer Systems Design and Related Services receive?
Computer Systems Design and Related Services businesses received 5,070 SBA loans totaling $2.5 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $488K. These loans supported 54,001 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) 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: Computer Systems Design and Related Services reports a higher net margin than 13% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 96% 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.
- Depository Credit Intermediation 2,072,993
- Services to Buildings and Dwellings 2,156,568
- Traveler Accommodation 1,905,596
Benchmarking Computer Systems Design and Related Services
- Net margin: 1.9% vs sector. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 145,813 establishments, 2,050,626 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 5,070 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 5415 · 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.