Employment
30,369
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54186
NAICS 54186 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Direct Mail Advertising - Industry Benchmarks
$66,070/yr average annual pay, with 51 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54186.
- 3.9%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 30K
- Workers employed
- $66,070/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $36M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54186
Illinois leads Direct Mail 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)
- 30K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $66,070/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $36M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Direct Mail Advertising's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Direct Mail 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 Direct Mail Advertising
Direct Mail Advertising sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
1,705 establishments employ 30,369 workers (17.8/location) at $66,070/yr average annual pay. Illinois leads employment, followed by Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$66,070/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,705
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 5,396; establishment count decreased by 162. 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)
- $2.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 17.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Direct Mail Advertising NAICS 541860 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 2,733 |
| Minnesota | 2,050 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,510 |
| New Jersey | 1,047 |
| Michigan | 760 |
| Ohio | 701 |
| Georgia | 551 |
| Iowa | 432 |
| Wisconsin | 408 |
| Indiana | 387 |
Showing top 10 of 46 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
51
Total Loan Volume
$36M
Avg Loan Size
$707K
Jobs Supported
604
Program Breakdown
7(a) 51 (100%)
504 0 (0%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
15.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 3
2021 8
2022 4
2023 10
2024 14
2025 11
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Direct Mail Advertising?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54186 level. Illinois 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 Direct Mail Advertising?
1,705 business establishments. Together they employ 30,369 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Direct Mail Advertising?
$66,070/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 17.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Direct Mail Advertising employment?
Illinois leads with 2,733 workers. Minnesota (2,050) and Pennsylvania (1,510) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Direct Mail Advertising receive?
Direct Mail Advertising businesses received 51 SBA loans totaling $36 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $707K. These loans supported 604 jobs at origination. Most lending (100%) 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.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Direct Mail Advertising ranks #405 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Charter Bus Industry 29,436
- Hardware Manufacturing 29,290
- Adhesive Manufacturing 31,470
Benchmarking Direct Mail Advertising
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 1,705 establishments, 30,369 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 51 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 54186 · 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.