Employment
148,684
Total employees (Census CBP)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 72232
NAICS 72232 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Caterers - Industry Benchmarks
$30,873/yr average annual pay, with 1,256 SBA loans on record for NAICS 72232.
- 6.7%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin
- 149K
- Workers employed
- $30,873/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $686M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 72232
California leads Caterers activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 6.7% net margin.
- 6.7%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 149K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $30,873/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $686M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Caterers
Caterers sits inside Accommodation and Food Services, a sector that runs a 6.7% net margin overall.
13,222 establishments employ 148,684 workers (11.3/location) at $30,873/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$30,873/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
13,222
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 12,548; establishment count increased by 176. 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)
- $4.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 11.3
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Caterers NAICS 722320 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 22,524 |
| New York | 17,935 |
| Texas | 8,463 |
| Florida | 8,208 |
| New Jersey | 7,628 |
| Illinois | 6,537 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,150 |
| Massachusetts | 5,971 |
| Ohio | 5,431 |
| Michigan | 4,240 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,256
Total Loan Volume
$686M
Avg Loan Size
$546K
Jobs Supported
15,996
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,096 (87%)
504 160 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
102 loans in this industry
New Business Share
31.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 163
2021 112
2022 163
2023 246
2024 271
2025 272
2026 29
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Caterers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 72232 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 6.7% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Caterers?
13,222 business establishments. Together they employ 148,684 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Caterers?
$30,873/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 11.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Caterers employment?
California leads with 22,524 workers. New York (17,935) and Texas (8,463) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Caterers receive?
Caterers businesses received 1,256 SBA loans totaling $686 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $546K. These loans supported 15,996 jobs at origination. Most lending (87%) 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 71% of that same 551-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 Caterers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Accommodation and Food Services
- 13,222 establishments, 148,684 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,256 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 72232 · 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.