Employment
256,702
Total employees (Census CBP)
Other Services (except Public Administration) ·NAICS 8123
NAICS 8123 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Drycleaning and Laundry Services - Industry Benchmarks
$37,204/yr average annual pay, with 2,277 SBA loans on record for NAICS 8123.
- 10.5%
- Other Services (except Public Administration) sector margin
- 257K
- Workers employed
- $37,204/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 8123
California leads Drycleaning and Laundry Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Other Services (except Public Administration) sector runs a 10.5% net margin.
- 10.5%
- Other Services (except Public Administration) sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 257K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $37,204/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Drycleaning and Laundry Services
Drycleaning and Laundry Services sits inside Other Services (except Public Administration), a sector that runs a 10.5% net margin overall.
29,017 establishments employ 256,702 workers (8.8/location) at $37,204/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$37,204/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
29,017
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 9,181; establishment count decreased by 615. 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)
- $9.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 8.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Coin-Operated Laundries and Drycleaners NAICS 81231 | N/A |
| Drycleaning and Laundry Services (except Coin-Operated) NAICS 81232 | N/A |
| Linen and Uniform Supply NAICS 81233 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 31,512 |
| Texas | 23,412 |
| New York | 20,718 |
| Florida | 15,867 |
| New Jersey | 10,319 |
| Illinois | 9,912 |
| Ohio | 9,155 |
| North Carolina | 8,083 |
| Georgia | 7,304 |
| Michigan | 6,577 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,277
Total Loan Volume
$1.5B
Avg Loan Size
$664K
Jobs Supported
18,370
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,992 (87%)
504 285 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
114 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 323
2021 332
2022 279
2023 338
2024 413
2025 513
2026 79
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Drycleaning and Laundry Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 8123 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Other Services (except Public Administration) sector runs a 10.5% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Drycleaning and Laundry Services?
29,017 business establishments. Together they employ 256,702 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Drycleaning and Laundry Services?
$37,204/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 8.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Drycleaning and Laundry Services employment?
California leads with 31,512 workers. Texas (23,412) and New York (20,718) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Drycleaning and Laundry Services receive?
Drycleaning and Laundry Services businesses received 2,277 SBA loans totaling $1.5 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $664K. These loans supported 18,370 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 59% 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.
- Other Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing 256,679
- Other Wood Product Manufacturing 255,619
- Other Food Manufacturing 257,870
Benchmarking Drycleaning and Laundry Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Other Services (except Public Administration)
- 29,017 establishments, 256,702 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 2,277 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 8123 · 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.