Employment
256,702
Total employees (Census CBP)
Other Services (except Public Administration) ·NAICS 8123
NAICS 8123 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Drycleaning and Laundry Services - Industry Benchmarks
$37,204/yr average annual pay, with 2,277 SBA loans on record for NAICS 8123.
- 4.0%
- Other Services (except Public Administration) sector margin
- 257K
- Workers employed
- $37,204/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.5B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 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 4.0% net margin.
- 4.0%
- 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
Use Drycleaning and Laundry Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Drycleaning and Laundry 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 Drycleaning and Laundry Services
Drycleaning and Laundry Services sits inside Other Services (except Public Administration), a sector that runs a 4.0% 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.
Drycleaning and Laundry Services sits in the 59th percentile for employment among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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 4.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Drycleaning and Laundry Services, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Drycleaning and Laundry Services ranks #106 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (256,702 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Other Services (except Public Administration) · 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 · 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.