Employment
60,066
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541820
NAICS 541820 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Public Relations Agencies - Industry Benchmarks
$119,649/yr average annual pay, with 196 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541820.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 60K
- Workers employed
- $119,649/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $83M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541820
New York leads Public Relations Agencies 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)
- 60K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $119,649/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $83M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Public Relations Agencies's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Public Relations Agencies 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 Public Relations Agencies
Public Relations Agencies sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
8,646 establishments employ 60,066 workers (7.0/location) at $119,649/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and District of Columbia.
Public Relations Agencies sits in the 60th percentile for employment among 6-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$119,649/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
8,646
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 2,304; establishment count increased by 11. 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)
- $7.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 7.0
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 12,561 |
| California | 10,558 |
| District of Columbia | 6,904 |
| Illinois | 3,305 |
| Texas | 2,570 |
| Massachusetts | 2,122 |
| Florida | 1,843 |
| Washington | 1,414 |
| New Jersey | 1,329 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,045 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
196
Total Loan Volume
$83M
Avg Loan Size
$426K
Jobs Supported
1,361
Program Breakdown
7(a) 173 (88%)
504 23 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association
15 loans in this industry
New Business Share
9.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 10
2021 25
2022 28
2023 30
2024 53
2025 46
2026 4
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Public Relations Agencies?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541820 level. New York 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 Public Relations Agencies?
8,646 business establishments. Together they employ 60,066 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Public Relations Agencies?
$119,649/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 7.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Public Relations Agencies employment?
New York leads with 12,561 workers. California (10,558) and District of Columbia (6,904) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Public Relations Agencies receive?
Public Relations Agencies businesses received 196 SBA loans totaling $83 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $426K. These loans supported 1,361 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Public Relations Agencies, both at NAICS level 6 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Public Relations Agencies ranks #319 of 801 U.S. industries at the 6-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (60,066 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 541820 · 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.