Employment
1,467,031
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54161
NAICS 54161 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Management Consulting Services - Industry Benchmarks
$107,952/yr average annual pay, with 6,334 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54161.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 1.5M
- Workers employed
- $107,952/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54161
California leads Management Consulting 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 3.9% net margin.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.5M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $107,952/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Management Consulting Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Management Consulting 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Management Consulting Services
Management Consulting Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
188,206 establishments employ 1,467,031 workers (7.8/location) at $107,952/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Management Consulting Services sits in the 97th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$107,952/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
188,206
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 99,065; establishment count increased by 9,847. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $158.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 7.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services NAICS 541611 | N/A |
| Human Resources Consulting Services NAICS 541612 | N/A |
| Marketing Consulting Services NAICS 541613 | N/A |
| Other Management Consulting Services NAICS 541618 | N/A |
| Process, Physical Distribution, and Logistics Consulting Services NAICS 541614 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 163,850 |
| Texas | 125,910 |
| Florida | 111,100 |
| New York | 102,308 |
| Illinois | 98,010 |
| Virginia | 96,116 |
| Georgia | 49,566 |
| Pennsylvania | 48,416 |
| Maryland | 47,237 |
| Massachusetts | 45,016 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
6,334
Total Loan Volume
$1.8B
Avg Loan Size
$278K
Jobs Supported
44,703
Program Breakdown
7(a) 6,126 (97%)
504 208 (3%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
576 loans in this industry
New Business Share
25.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 605
2021 672
2022 766
2023 1,069
2024 1,400
2025 1,618
2026 204
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Management Consulting Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54161 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 3.9% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Management Consulting Services?
188,206 business establishments. Together they employ 1,467,031 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Management Consulting Services?
$107,952/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 7.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Management Consulting Services employment?
California leads with 163,850 workers. Texas (125,910) and Florida (111,100) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Management Consulting Services receive?
Management Consulting Services businesses received 6,334 SBA loans totaling $1.8 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $278K. These loans supported 44,703 jobs at origination. Most lending (97%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Management Consulting Services, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Management Consulting Services ranks #15 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,467,031 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 54161 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.