Employment
1,011,407
Total employees (Census CBP)
Administrative and Support and Waste Management ·NAICS 5616
NAICS 5616 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Investigation and Security Services - Industry Benchmarks
$38,410/yr average annual pay, with 1,202 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5616.
- 5.6%
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector margin
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- $38,410/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $530M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5616
California leads Investigation and Security 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 5.6% net margin.
- 5.6%
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $38,410/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $530M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Investigation and Security Services
Investigation and Security Services sits inside Administrative and Support and Waste Management, a sector that runs a 5.6% net margin overall.
26,992 establishments employ 1,011,407 workers (37.5/location) at $38,410/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$38,410/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
26,992
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 34,840; establishment count increased by 449. 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)
- $38.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 37.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Investigation, Guard, and Armored Car Services NAICS 56161 | N/A |
| Security Systems Services NAICS 56162 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 180,445 |
| New York | 99,354 |
| Texas | 81,883 |
| Florida | 72,953 |
| Virginia | 43,518 |
| Illinois | 41,783 |
| Pennsylvania | 37,959 |
| Georgia | 30,428 |
| New Jersey | 30,173 |
| Maryland | 27,374 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,202
Total Loan Volume
$530M
Avg Loan Size
$441K
Jobs Supported
25,451
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,127 (94%)
504 75 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
86 loans in this industry
New Business Share
19.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 139
2021 160
2022 126
2023 174
2024 240
2025 321
2026 42
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Investigation and Security Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 5616 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector runs a 5.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Investigation and Security Services?
26,992 business establishments. Together they employ 1,011,407 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Investigation and Security Services?
$38,410/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 37.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Investigation and Security Services employment?
California leads with 180,445 workers. New York (99,354) and Texas (81,883) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Investigation and Security Services receive?
Investigation and Security Services businesses received 1,202 SBA loans totaling $530 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $441K. These loans supported 25,451 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) 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 86% of that same 259-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.
- Software Publishers 1,011,187
- Gasoline Stations 1,016,960
- Scientific Research and Development Services 1,003,975
Benchmarking Investigation and Security Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Administrative and Support and Waste Management
- 26,992 establishments, 1,011,407 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,202 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 5616 · 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.