Employment
60,066
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541820
NAICS 541820 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Public Relations Agencies - Industry Benchmarks
$119,649/yr average annual pay, with 196 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541820.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 60K
- Workers employed
- $119,649/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $83M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 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 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- 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
Benchmarking Insights for Public Relations Agencies
Public Relations Agencies sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% 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.
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.
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 14.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
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.
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 60% 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 Public Relations Agencies
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 8,646 establishments, 60,066 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 196 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 541820 · 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.