National rankings · IRS SOI + Census CBP 2023

Largest U.S. Industries by Employment

The top 25 U.S. industries by total employment, drawn straight from IRS Statistics of Income and Census County Business Patterns. Switch the metric below.

12,960,998
#1: Administrative and S…
25
Industries ranked

The ranking in one line · Largest U.S. Industries by Employment

Administrative and Support Services leads U.S. industries by total employment at 12,960,998, ahead of Food Services and Drinking Places (12,644,827).

12,960,998
#1 Administrative and Sup…
12,644,827
#2 Food Services and Drin…
10,401,442
#3 Professional, Scientif…
8,697,480
#4 Ambulatory Health Care…
Most Profitable Largest Employers Highest Payroll Highest Revenue SBA Lending ↗

Total employees · Census Bureau CBP 2023

# Industry Employment
1 Administrative and Support Services

NAICS 561

 12,960,998
2 Food Services and Drinking Places

NAICS 722

 12,644,827
3 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

NAICS 541

 10,401,442
4 Ambulatory Health Care Services

NAICS 621

 8,697,480
5 Hospitals

NAICS 622

 6,344,178
6 Specialty Trade Contractors

NAICS 238

 4,986,759
7 Educational Services

NAICS 611

 3,926,820
8 Management of Companies and Enterprises

NAICS 551

 3,855,720
9 Social Assistance

NAICS 624

 3,742,670
10 Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods

NAICS 423

 3,633,921
11 Food and Beverage Stores

NAICS 445

 3,333,898
12 Nursing and Residential Care Facilities

NAICS 623

 3,278,910
13 Insurance Carriers and Related Activities

NAICS 524

 2,964,086
14 Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

NAICS 522

 2,953,663
15 Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations

NAICS 813

 2,676,522
16 Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods

NAICS 424

 2,358,648
17 Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers

NAICS 441

 2,015,007
18 Accommodation

NAICS 721

 1,963,343
19 Real Estate

NAICS 531

 1,819,631
20 Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries

NAICS 713

 1,794,693
21 Food Manufacturing

NAICS 311

 1,707,316
22 Truck Transportation

NAICS 484

 1,693,228
23 Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

NAICS 336

 1,682,910
24 Construction of Buildings

NAICS 236

 1,621,439
25 Personal and Laundry Services

NAICS 812

 1,556,668

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 · SBA lending data →

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This hub surfaces the top industries by profit margin and employment, 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.