Wholesale Trade in California

Wholesale Trade (NAICS 42) in California reports 809,519 workers across 54,671 establishments, with $86.5B of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 13.0% of national employment for this industry — a concentration ratio that tells you whether California is a primary labor market for this NAICS code or a smaller satellite. A share above 5% signals a meaningful regional cluster; below 1% usually means the state is not a structural fit for this industry at scale.

Wage benchmarking is where state-level data earns its keep. The average annual compensation for Wholesale Trade employees in California is $106,868/yr, versus a national average of $90,505/yr. California pays above the national average for this industry, which usually reflects higher skill concentration, union density, or regional cost of living.

Profitability data is only available at the national level because the IRS Statistics of Income program does not publish state-level margin breakdowns. The national net profit margin for Wholesale Trade is 4.1%, and while margins do vary by state, the direction of variance usually follows labor cost and establishment size — both shown above. For a complete picture, pair this state-industry view with the Wholesale Trade national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the California overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).