Employment
1,012,250
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541511
NAICS 541511 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Custom Computer Programming Services - Industry Benchmarks
$124,254/yr average annual pay, with 1,848 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541511.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- $124,254/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $854M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541511
California leads Custom Computer Programming 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 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $124,254/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $854M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Custom Computer Programming Services
Custom Computer Programming Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
68,051 establishments employ 1,012,250 workers (14.9/location) at $124,254/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Virginia.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$124,254/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
68,051
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 32,294; establishment count increased by 13. 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)
- $125.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.9
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 182,743 |
| Texas | 95,646 |
| Virginia | 74,778 |
| New York | 49,409 |
| New Jersey | 49,196 |
| Florida | 45,971 |
| Illinois | 43,213 |
| Georgia | 42,463 |
| Pennsylvania | 37,308 |
| Maryland | 36,724 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,848
Total Loan Volume
$854M
Avg Loan Size
$462K
Jobs Supported
21,079
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,777 (96%)
504 71 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
204 loans in this industry
New Business Share
15.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 246
2021 190
2022 199
2023 266
2024 392
2025 496
2026 59
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Custom Computer Programming Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541511 level. California 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 Custom Computer Programming Services?
68,051 business establishments. Together they employ 1,012,250 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Custom Computer Programming Services?
$124,254/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Custom Computer Programming Services employment?
California leads with 182,743 workers. Texas (95,646) and Virginia (74,778) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Custom Computer Programming Services receive?
Custom Computer Programming Services businesses received 1,848 SBA loans totaling $854 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $462K. These loans supported 21,079 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) 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 97% 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.
- Software Publishers 1,011,187
- Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors 1,015,983
- Offices of Dentists 1,028,889
Benchmarking Custom Computer Programming Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 68,051 establishments, 1,012,250 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,848 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 541511 · 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.