Employment
41,686
Total employees (Census CBP)
Administrative and Support and Waste Management ·NAICS 561611
NAICS 561611 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Investigation Services - Industry Benchmarks
$58,545/yr average annual pay, with 150 SBA loans on record for NAICS 561611.
- 3.9%
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management sector margin
- 42K
- Workers employed
- $58,545/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $43M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 561611
California leads Investigation 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)
- 42K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $58,545/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $43M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Investigation Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Investigation 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 Investigation Services
Investigation Services sits inside Administrative and Support and Waste Management, a sector that runs a 3.9% net margin overall.
4,013 establishments employ 41,686 workers (10.4/location) at $58,545/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and New York.
Investigation Services sits in the 51st percentile for employment among 6-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$58,545/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,013
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 1,723; establishment count decreased by 72. 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)
- $2.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 10.4
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 5,798 |
| Florida | 3,740 |
| New York | 2,545 |
| Georgia | 1,987 |
| North Carolina | 1,064 |
| New Jersey | 1,027 |
| Colorado | 543 |
| Connecticut | 414 |
| Wisconsin | 393 |
| Utah | 223 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
150
Total Loan Volume
$43M
Avg Loan Size
$287K
Jobs Supported
2,036
Program Breakdown
7(a) 138 (92%)
504 12 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
15 loans in this industry
New Business Share
20.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 12
2021 19
2022 18
2023 22
2024 32
2025 33
2026 14
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Investigation Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 561611 level. California 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 Investigation Services?
4,013 business establishments. Together they employ 41,686 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Investigation Services?
$58,545/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 10.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Investigation Services employment?
California leads with 5,798 workers. Florida (3,740) and New York (2,545) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Investigation Services receive?
Investigation Services businesses received 150 SBA loans totaling $43 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $287K. These loans supported 2,036 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Investigation Services, both at NAICS level 6 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Investigation Services ranks #396 of 801 U.S. industries at the 6-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (41,686 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 561611 · 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.