Employment
18,623
Total employees (Census CBP)
Educational Services ·NAICS 611511
NAICS 611511 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Cosmetology and Barber Schools - Industry Benchmarks
$39,319/yr average annual pay, with 188 SBA loans on record for NAICS 611511.
- 9.3%
- Educational Services sector margin
- 19K
- Workers employed
- $39,319/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $121M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 611511
California leads Cosmetology and Barber Schools activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Educational Services sector runs a 9.3% net margin.
- 9.3%
- Educational Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 19K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $39,319/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $121M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Cosmetology and Barber Schools
Cosmetology and Barber Schools sits inside Educational Services, a sector that runs a 9.3% net margin overall.
1,717 establishments employ 18,623 workers (10.8/location) at $39,319/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$39,319/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,717
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 471; establishment count increased by 8. 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)
- $732.2M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 10.8
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 2,223 |
| Texas | 2,050 |
| Florida | 1,342 |
| Illinois | 796 |
| Utah | 755 |
| Ohio | 716 |
| Michigan | 559 |
| Indiana | 517 |
| Tennessee | 503 |
| Arizona | 488 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
188
Total Loan Volume
$121M
Avg Loan Size
$643K
Jobs Supported
2,140
Program Breakdown
7(a) 166 (88%)
504 22 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
18 loans in this industry
New Business Share
29.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 17
2021 34
2022 23
2023 34
2024 39
2025 38
2026 3
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Cosmetology and Barber Schools?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 611511 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Educational Services sector runs a 9.3% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Cosmetology and Barber Schools?
1,717 business establishments. Together they employ 18,623 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Cosmetology and Barber Schools?
$39,319/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 10.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Cosmetology and Barber Schools employment?
California leads with 2,223 workers. Texas (2,050) and Florida (1,342) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Cosmetology and Barber Schools receive?
Cosmetology and Barber Schools businesses received 188 SBA loans totaling $121 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $643K. These loans supported 2,140 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) 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 29% of that same 801-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.
Benchmarking Cosmetology and Barber Schools
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Educational Services
- 1,717 establishments, 18,623 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 188 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 611511 · 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.