Employment
88,934
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541620
NAICS 541620 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Environmental Consulting Services - Industry Benchmarks
$85,025/yr average annual pay, with 314 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541620.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 89K
- Workers employed
- $85,025/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $143M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541620
California leads Environmental 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 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 89K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $85,025/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $143M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Environmental Consulting Services
Environmental Consulting Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
9,696 establishments employ 88,934 workers (9.2/location) at $85,025/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$85,025/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
9,696
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 7,238; establishment count decreased by 413. 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)
- $7.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.2
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 14,838 |
| Texas | 7,712 |
| New York | 4,512 |
| Colorado | 4,022 |
| Florida | 3,889 |
| Massachusetts | 3,843 |
| Pennsylvania | 3,820 |
| New Jersey | 3,242 |
| Maryland | 2,878 |
| Ohio | 2,655 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
314
Total Loan Volume
$143M
Avg Loan Size
$455K
Jobs Supported
3,010
Program Breakdown
7(a) 291 (93%)
504 23 (7%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
21 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 41
2021 41
2022 33
2023 45
2024 57
2025 83
2026 14
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Environmental Consulting Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541620 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 Environmental Consulting Services?
9,696 business establishments. Together they employ 88,934 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Environmental Consulting Services?
$85,025/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Environmental Consulting Services employment?
California leads with 14,838 workers. Texas (7,712) and New York (4,512) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Environmental Consulting Services receive?
Environmental Consulting Services businesses received 314 SBA loans totaling $143 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $455K. These loans supported 3,010 jobs at origination. Most lending (93%) 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 70% 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.
Benchmarking Environmental Consulting Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 9,696 establishments, 88,934 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 314 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 541620 · 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.