How many people are employed in Pennsylvania?

According to Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 data, Pennsylvania has 5,684,514 employees across 305,947 business establishments in 1085 tracked industries.

What are the largest industries in Pennsylvania?

The largest industries in Pennsylvania by employment are Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices (215,514), Full-Service Restaurants (190,674), and Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (179,792).

What is the average payroll in Pennsylvania?

Average payroll per employee varies widely by industry in Pennsylvania. The highest-paying tracked industry is Executive Search Services at $214,092/yr. All data is from Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023.

How many businesses operate in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania has 305,947 business establishments across 1085 industries tracked by the Census Bureau County Business Patterns program. Each establishment represents a single physical location or operating unit.

State overview · PA · Census CBP 2023

Pennsylvania Industry Benchmarks

Name: Pennsylvania Industry Employment and Payroll Benchmarks
Creator: PlainBizBench
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Employment, establishments, and payroll for 1085 industries in Pennsylvania. Drill into any industry for a Pennsylvania-specific view, then cross-reference the national page for margins.

Compiled by PlainBizBench

5.7M
Workers: 306K
Establishments: 1085
Industries tracked

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania employs 5,684,514 workers across 1085 tracked industries, led by Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices (215,514 workers).

Health Care and Social Assistance anchors Pennsylvania; top-three cumulative share is 41%. Margins stay on national industry pages.

Pennsylvania sector employment mix

Share of private-sector employment by NAICS-2 sector (Census CBP 2023). Tile area = workers.

Pennsylvania private employment by sector · Census CBP 2023

Health Care and Social Assistance is the clear anchor in Pennsylvania (20% of 5,684,514 private-sector workers (about the 90th percentile of states by employment)), but sibling sectors still take meaningful shares. Read the treemap as an anchor-plus-breadth economy rather than a one-sector state.

#1 · NAICS 62

Health Care and Social Assistance

1,142,207 · 20%

#2 · NAICS 44

Retail Trade

650,539 · 11%

#3 · NAICS 31

Manufacturing

564,394 · 10%

Anchor economy · Herfindahl 0.094 (open) · top-three 41% of Pennsylvania private payroll.

Profit margins are national (IRS SOI); open any industry row below, then the matching national industry page for profitability.

Census CBP firm roll

County Business Patterns PA ANCHORED · CBP

#5/51 · 5,684,514 workers · 305,947 firms

EMP 5,684,514
EST 305,947
RANK #5/51
PCT 90th pct
LEAD Health Care and Soci…
SHARE 20% lead
BAND anchored
DENS 18.6 /firm
BOOK 1085 NAICS
PHOTO Illinois

Nearest employment-scale peer: Illinois (5,659,820 workers)

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Pennsylvania ranks #5 of 51 states and territories by total private-sector employment (level-2 sector totals, the same non-double-counted aggregate shown above). Margins stay on national industry pages (IRS SOI). Read with this state → · Lead 6-digit industry →

Census CBP level-2 private employment among this state and nearest nationwide peers

Top Industries by Employment

Industry	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices NAICS 551114	215,514	1,998	$24.8B	$115,029/yr
Full-Service Restaurants NAICS 722511	190,674	9,433	$4.4B	$23,152/yr
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools NAICS 611310	179,792	181	$9.7B	$53,899/yr
Limited-Service Restaurants NAICS 722513	139,513	9,802	$2.6B	$18,618/yr
Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities NAICS 624120	137,045	2,455	$4.7B	$34,289/yr
Supermarkets and Other Grocery (except Convenience) Stores NAICS 445110	123,388	2,543	$3.1B	$24,721/yr
Temporary Help Services NAICS 561320	110,839	1,460	$5.1B	$45,778/yr
General Warehousing and Storage NAICS 493110	85,998	742	$4.3B	$50,156/yr
Home Health Care Services NAICS 621610	84,891	1,522	$3.5B	$41,679/yr
Religious Organizations NAICS 813110	66,379	9,420	$1.7B	$25,615/yr
Elementary and Secondary Schools NAICS 611110	61,260	1,140	$3.1B	$50,182/yr
Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities) NAICS 623110	59,380	648	$2.5B	$42,817/yr
Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers NAICS 524114	50,768	347	$4.8B	$93,868/yr
Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability Facilities NAICS 623210	49,027	2,205	$2.2B	$45,820/yr
Engineering Services NAICS 541330	48,394	2,243	$5.1B	$104,997/yr
New Car Dealers NAICS 441110	47,766	1,046	$3.2B	$67,601/yr
Child Day Care Services NAICS 624410	46,742	3,823	$1.3B	$28,533/yr
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors NAICS 238220	44,585	4,154	$3.4B	$75,469/yr
Continuing Care Retirement Communities NAICS 623311	43,065	326	$1.7B	$39,893/yr
Offices of Lawyers NAICS 541110	42,329	5,131	$5.4B	$126,674/yr

Scale peers for Pennsylvania's anchor economy

Nearest other states by Census CBP level-2 private employment (5,684,514 in Pennsylvania), excluding PA.

Illinois 5,659,820 Ohio 4,867,738 Georgia 4,374,151 North Carolina 4,036,587 Michigan 4,012,577 New Jersey 3,923,631 Virginia 3,566,772 Massachusetts 3,473,172

Disclaimer: Pennsylvania (PA) figures on this page are Census CBP employment and payroll counts for informational registry use only, not financial, tax, or business advice. Consult a qualified accountant for decisions about Pennsylvania businesses.

Source: Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023 · PA

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

Data sourced from official public datasets for Pennsylvania (PA). See our methodology.

Verify with U.S. Census Bureau → · Verify with IRS SOI →