NAICS Sector 42 · IRS SOI + Census CBP 2023

Wholesale Trade

SBA 7(a)/504 files show 18,090 loans ($13.7B) for NAICS 42, loan-count rank #10 of 24 sectors; FY2020→FY2025 trajectory is rising.

3.6%
Avg net margin
6.2M
Workers
165
Industries
$4.6T
Annual receipts

Wholesale Trade payroll leans hard on Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods: that single 3-digit NAICS holds 58% of level-3 headcount. Sibling lines fill the rest, a concentrated industry mix inside the sector.

Where Wholesale Trade employment sits

Census CBP level-2 sector rows · California holds 13% · top 5 = 38.2%

  1. #1 California 809,519
  2. #2 Texas 566,990
  3. #3 Florida 365,417
  4. #4 Illinois 322,193
  5. #5 New York 315,835

Sector ranks #10 of 24 by establishment count.

SBA lending in NAICS 42

FY2020–FY2025 · 7(a)+504 roll-up · #10/24 sectors by loan count

Loans

18,090

Volume

$13.7B

Jobs at origination

147,911

Top lender

TD Bank, National Association

FY2020→FY2025: 2202→3541 loans (rising, +1339).

CBP payroll per worker: $91/yr · SOI receipts/est $12.1M.

Highest-margin industries in Wholesale Trade

Pre-tax net margin by sub-industry, IRS Statistics of Income 2023.

Wholesale Electronic Markets…17.1%Merchant Wholesalers, Durabl…2.9%Merchant Wholesalers, Nondur…2.8%

All Industries in This Sector

Industry Profit Margin
Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods

NAICS 423

 2.9%
Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods

NAICS 424

 2.8%
Wholesale Electronic Markets and Agents and Brokers

NAICS 425

 17.1%

Top Profit Margins

Largest Employers

  1. #1 Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods 3,633,921
  2. #2 Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods 2,358,648
  3. #3 Wholesale Electronic Markets and Agents and Brokers 243,788

Frequently Asked Questions

Who finances Wholesale Trade small businesses?
18,090 SBA 7(a)/504 loans totaling $13.7B (FY2020–FY2026); sector loan-count rank #10/24. FY2020→FY2025 loan counts went 2202→3541 (rising). Busiest lender on record: TD Bank, National Association.
Where is Wholesale Trade employment concentrated geographically?
California leads with 809,519 workers (13% of Census CBP sector headcount); next are Texas (566,990) and Florida (365,417). Top-5 share is 38.2%. Figures use level-2 sector rows only.
How wide is the margin gap inside NAICS 42?
IRS SOI prints a 3.6% sector average for Wholesale Trade, but the sub-industry spread is 14.3 pp, from Wholesale Electronic Markets and Agents and Brokers at 17.1% down to thinner lines in the same sector.
Disclaimer: PlainBizBench provides publicly available IRS and Census data for informational purposes only on NAICS 42 (Wholesale Trade). This is not financial, tax, or business advice. Consult a qualified accountant or financial advisor for business-specific guidance.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBizBench

Census CBP 2023 + IRS SOI 2013 for NAICS 42 · SBA 7(a)/504 $13.7B. CSV: sector 42 rows.

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates every industry within this sector, 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.