Accommodation and Food Services in Tennessee

Accommodation and Food Services (NAICS 72251) in Tennessee reports 265,577 workers across 12,351 establishments, with $6.0B of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 2.3% of national employment for this industry — a concentration ratio that tells you whether Tennessee 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 Accommodation and Food Services employees in Tennessee is $22,607/yr, versus a national average of $24,280/yr. Tennessee pays below the national average for this industry — common in lower cost-of-living states or where the industry has a smaller, less specialized local workforce.

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 Accommodation and Food Services is not reported, 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 Accommodation and Food Services national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the Tennessee overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).