Employment
805,701
Total employees (Census CBP)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 7223
NAICS 7223 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Special Food Services - Industry Benchmarks
$30,080/yr average annual pay, with 3,125 SBA loans on record for NAICS 7223.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin
- 806K
- Workers employed
- $30,080/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 7223
California leads Special Food Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 806K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $30,080/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Special Food Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Special Food 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 Special Food Services
Special Food Services sits inside Accommodation and Food Services, a sector that runs a 5.6% net margin overall.
55,221 establishments employ 805,701 workers (14.6/location) at $30,080/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Special Food Services sits in the 82nd percentile for employment among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$30,080/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
55,221
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 75,428; establishment count increased by 1,101. 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)
- $24.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Caterers NAICS 72232 | N/A |
| Food Service Contractors NAICS 72231 | N/A |
| Mobile Food Services NAICS 72233 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 81,431 |
| New York | 68,428 |
| Texas | 66,455 |
| Florida | 48,959 |
| Pennsylvania | 42,441 |
| Illinois | 40,588 |
| New Jersey | 37,983 |
| Georgia | 26,722 |
| Michigan | 24,193 |
| Massachusetts | 24,141 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
3,125
Total Loan Volume
$1.1B
Avg Loan Size
$345K
Jobs Supported
28,880
Program Breakdown
7(a) 2,843 (91%)
504 282 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
339 loans in this industry
New Business Share
42.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 329
2021 319
2022 408
2023 595
2024 692
2025 701
2026 81
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Special Food Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 7223 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Special Food Services?
55,221 business establishments. Together they employ 805,701 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Special Food Services?
$30,080/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Special Food Services employment?
California leads with 81,431 workers. New York (68,428) and Texas (66,455) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Special Food Services receive?
Special Food Services businesses received 3,125 SBA loans totaling $1.1 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $345K. These loans supported 28,880 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Special Food Services, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Special Food Services ranks #46 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (805,701 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Accommodation and Food Services · 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 7223 · 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.