Employment
368,130
Total employees (Census CBP)
Administrative and Support and Waste Management ·NAICS 56131
NAICS 56131 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services - Industry Benchmarks
$59,481/yr average annual pay, with 1,038 SBA loans on record for NAICS 56131.
- 3.9%
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector margin
- 368K
- Workers employed
- $59,481/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $429M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 56131
Florida leads Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector runs a 3.9% net margin.
- 3.9%
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 368K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $59,481/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $429M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services
Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services sits inside Administrative and Support and Waste Management, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
13,576 establishments employ 368,130 workers (27.1/location) at $59,481/yr average annual pay. Florida leads employment, followed by Texas and Illinois.
Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services sits in the 88th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$59,481/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
13,576
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 49,121; establishment count increased by 304. 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)
- $21.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 27.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Employment Placement Agencies NAICS 561311 | N/A |
| Executive Search Services NAICS 561312 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Florida | 38,436 |
| Texas | 33,173 |
| Illinois | 19,495 |
| New York | 18,148 |
| Georgia | 13,444 |
| Ohio | 13,269 |
| Indiana | 12,672 |
| Michigan | 11,334 |
| Massachusetts | 9,665 |
| Nebraska | 7,882 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,038
Total Loan Volume
$429M
Avg Loan Size
$413K
Jobs Supported
23,336
Program Breakdown
7(a) 996 (96%)
504 42 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
70 loans in this industry
New Business Share
31.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 97
2021 99
2022 134
2023 168
2024 264
2025 247
2026 29
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 56131 level. Florida leads this industry nationally. The broader Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector runs a 3.9% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services?
13,576 business establishments. Together they employ 368,130 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services?
$59,481/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 27.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services employment?
Florida leads with 38,436 workers. Texas (33,173) and Illinois (19,495) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services receive?
Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services businesses received 1,038 SBA loans totaling $429 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $413K. These loans supported 23,336 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services ranks #67 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (368,130 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Administrative and Support and Waste Management · 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 56131 · 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.