NAICS Sector 55 · IRS SOI + Census CBP 2023

Management of Companies and Enterprises

Sector-wide financial benchmarks across 7 sub-industries, profit margin, payroll, employment, and revenue. Drill into any industry below for NAICS-level detail.

71.8%
Avg net margin
3.9M
Workers
7
Industries
$870.3B
Annual receipts

The verdict · Management of Companies and Enterprises

The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector averages a 71.8% net margin across 7 sub-industries - well above the national average - but margins vary widely between sub-industries.

71.8%
Avg net margin (IRS SOI)
3.9M
Workers (Census CBP)
50K
Establishments
7
Sub-industries

Sector averages are a map, not a benchmark, drop one NAICS level deeper to compare your own business.

What the Management of Companies and Enterprises Sector Numbers Reveal

The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector (NAICS 55) aggregates 7 distinct sub-industries into one benchmarking unit. At the sector level, the average net profit margin is 71.8% - a figure that is well above the national average. Averages at this tier can mislead because they blend high-margin specialty lines with commodity operators: margin dispersion across the sub-industries is wide. When you benchmark a business against a sector, always drop one level deeper to the NAICS 6-digit industry that matches your actual operations.

Scale metrics reinforce the story. Census Bureau CBP 2023 records 3,855,720 employees across 49,556 establishments in this sector, with $870.3B of annual receipts flowing through the IRS SOI filings. The largest employer sub-industry is Management of Companies and Enterprises with 3,855,720 workers. Understanding which sub-industries drive headcount helps identify where labor cost trends, wage pressure, and hiring competition will concentrate, all of which feed directly into the profit margin shown above.

For operators, investors, and analysts, the right move is to use this sector page as a map rather than a conclusion. Click into any sub-industry below to see its actual NAICS-6 profit margin, entity-type breakdown (sole prop vs. S-corp vs. C-corp), state-level employment concentration, and SBA lending activity. Sector-level numbers are the aggregate; the real benchmarking precision lives one layer down in the IRS SOI and Census CBP micro-data that PlainBizBench surfaces on each industry page.

Avg Profit Margin

71.8%

Total Employment

3,855,720

Establishments

49,556

Total Receipts

$870.3B

All Industries in This Sector

Industry Profit Margin
Management of Companies and Enterprises

NAICS 551

N/A

Top Profit Margins

Largest Employers

  1. #1 Management of Companies and Enterprises 3,855,720

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average profit margin for the Management of Companies and Enterprises sector?
The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector (NAICS 55) has an average net profit margin of 71.8% across 7 sub-industries, which is well above the national average. This is derived from IRS Statistics of Income business tax data.
How many industries are in the Management of Companies and Enterprises sector?
The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector (NAICS 55) contains 7 distinct sub-industries classified under the North American Industry Classification System. These range from various specializations to major employers like Management of Companies and Enterprises (3,855,720 employees).
How many people work in the Management of Companies and Enterprises sector?
The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector employs 3,855,720 workers across 49,556 business establishments nationwide, according to Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 data.
What are the most profitable industries in Management of Companies and Enterprises?
Detailed profit margin rankings for Management of Companies and Enterprises sub-industries are not available.
What is the total revenue of the Management of Companies and Enterprises sector?
The Management of Companies and Enterprises sector reports total annual receipts of $870.3B across all business entities filing federal tax returns. This covers all 7 sub-industries within NAICS sector 55, based on IRS Statistics of Income data.
Disclaimer: PlainBizBench provides publicly available IRS and Census data for informational purposes only. This is not financial, tax, or business advice. Consult a qualified accountant or financial advisor for business-specific guidance.
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBizBench Editorial

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 across 24 NAICS sectors against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

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.