Employment
22,089
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541850
NAICS 541850 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Outdoor Advertising - Industry Benchmarks
$83,034/yr average annual pay, with 87 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541850.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 22K
- Workers employed
- $83,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $43M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541850
California leads Outdoor Advertising 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)
- 22K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $83,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $43M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Outdoor Advertising's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Outdoor Advertising 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 Outdoor Advertising
Outdoor Advertising sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
2,442 establishments employ 22,089 workers (9.1/location) at $83,034/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Outdoor Advertising sits in the 32nd percentile for employment among 6-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$83,034/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,442
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 637; establishment count decreased by 107. 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)
- $1.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.1
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 2,800 |
| Texas | 2,527 |
| New York | 2,271 |
| Florida | 2,168 |
| Illinois | 848 |
| Ohio | 706 |
| Minnesota | 698 |
| Georgia | 629 |
| New Jersey | 600 |
| Arizona | 427 |
Showing top 10 of 49 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
87
Total Loan Volume
$43M
Avg Loan Size
$491K
Jobs Supported
740
Program Breakdown
7(a) 85 (98%)
504 2 (2%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
27.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 6
2021 14
2022 9
2023 10
2024 24
2025 23
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Outdoor Advertising?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541850 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 Outdoor Advertising?
2,442 business establishments. Together they employ 22,089 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Outdoor Advertising?
$83,034/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Outdoor Advertising employment?
California leads with 2,800 workers. Texas (2,527) and New York (2,271) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Outdoor Advertising receive?
Outdoor Advertising businesses received 87 SBA loans totaling $43 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $491K. These loans supported 740 jobs at origination. Most lending (98%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Outdoor Advertising, both at NAICS level 6 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Outdoor Advertising ranks #541 of 801 U.S. industries at the 6-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (22,089 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 541850 · 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.