Profit Margin
-20.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5417
NAICS 5417 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Scientific Research and Development Services - Industry Benchmarks
$153,460/yr average annual pay, with 304 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5417.
- -20.1%
- Net margin
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- $153,460/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $193M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5417
Scientific Research and Development Services runs a -20.1% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 22K establishments employing 1.0M workers.
- -20.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $153,460/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $193M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Scientific Research and Development Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Scientific Research and Development 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 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Scientific Research and Development Services
Scientific Research and Development Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a -20.1% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $58.8B in aggregate receipts across 18,080 returns, averaging $3.2B per establishment.
22,403 establishments employ 1,003,975 workers (44.8/location) at $153,460/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Scientific Research and Development Services sits in the 86th percentile for employment and the 0th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$58.8B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-11779027000
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,003,975
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$153,460/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
22,403
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 53,092; establishment count increased by 223. 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)Where each dollar of Scientific Research and Development Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Scientific Research and Development Services margin vs national reference points
Scientific Research and Development Services net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
18,080 returns
Margin: -20.1% · Receipts: $58.8B
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
61,446 returns
Margin: 50.8% · Receipts: $2.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 18,080
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $3.2B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $154.1B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 44.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences NAICS 54171 | N/A |
| Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities NAICS 54172 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 212,852 |
| Massachusetts | 100,285 |
| New Jersey | 46,827 |
| North Carolina | 46,785 |
| New York | 40,970 |
| Texas | 40,307 |
| Illinois | 35,635 |
| Pennsylvania | 34,227 |
| Michigan | 34,215 |
| Virginia | 33,632 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
304
Total Loan Volume
$193M
Avg Loan Size
$635K
Jobs Supported
3,049
Program Breakdown
7(a) 255 (84%)
504 49 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
19 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 45
2021 41
2022 46
2023 32
2024 64
2025 71
2026 5
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Scientific Research and Development Services?
$58.8B in total annual receipts across all Scientific Research and Development Services businesses. Average per business: $3.2B.
How profitable is Scientific Research and Development Services?
-20.1% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Scientific Research and Development Services?
22,403 business establishments. Together they employ 1,003,975 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Scientific Research and Development Services?
$153,460/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 44.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Scientific Research and Development Services employment?
California leads with 212,852 workers. Massachusetts (100,285) and New Jersey (46,827) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Scientific Research and Development Services receive?
Scientific Research and Development Services businesses received 304 SBA loans totaling $193 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $635K. These loans supported 3,049 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Scientific Research and Development Services, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Scientific Research and Development Services ranks #37 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #126 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (-20.1% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (1,003,975 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · 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 5417 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.