How many people are employed in Texas?

According to Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 data, Texas has 12,011,416 employees across 670,053 business establishments in 1205 tracked industries.

What are the largest industries in Texas?

The largest industries in Texas by employment are Limited-Service Restaurants (545,407), Full-Service Restaurants (493,197), and General Medical and Surgical Hospitals (390,049).

What is the average payroll in Texas?

Average payroll per employee varies widely by industry in Texas. The highest-paying tracked industry is Commodity Contracts Dealing at $407,103/yr. All data is from Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023.

How many businesses operate in Texas?

Texas has 670,053 business establishments across 1205 industries tracked by the Census Bureau County Business Patterns program. Each establishment represents a single physical location or operating unit.

State overview · TX · Census CBP 2023

Texas Industry Benchmarks

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

Employment, establishments, and payroll for 1205 industries in Texas. Drill into any industry for a Texas-specific view, then cross-reference the national page for margins.

Compiled by PlainBizBench

12.0M
Workers: 670K
Establishments: 1205
Industries tracked

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · Texas

Texas employs 12,011,416 workers across 1205 tracked industries, led by Limited-Service Restaurants (545,407 workers).

No single sector dominates Texas (lead 14%; top-three 37%). Margins stay on national industry pages.

Texas sector employment mix

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

Texas private employment by sector · Census CBP 2023

Texas spreads employment across sectors: the largest, Health Care and Social Assistance, is only 14% of 12,011,416 private-sector workers (about the 96th percentile of states by employment). No single NAICS-2 block dominates the private labor market here.

TX breadth ledger · HHI 0.082
Sector	Workers	Share
Health Care and Social Assistance (62)	1,718,907	14%
Retail Trade (44)	1,382,827	12%
Accommodation and Food Services (72)	1,355,419	11%
Top-three cumulative 37% - no single NAICS-2 block dominates.

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 TX DISTRIBUTED · CBP

#2/51 · 12,011,416 workers · 670,053 firms

EMP 12,011,416
EST 670,053
RANK #2/51
PCT 96th pct
LEAD Health Care and Soci…
SHARE 14% lead
BAND distributed
DENS 17.9 /firm
BOOK 1205 NAICS
PHOTO Florida

Nearest employment-scale peer: Florida (9,988,508 workers)

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Texas ranks #2 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
Limited-Service Restaurants NAICS 722513	545,407	24,360	$10.9B	$20,019/yr
Full-Service Restaurants NAICS 722511	493,197	20,819	$12.9B	$26,056/yr
General Medical and Surgical Hospitals NAICS 622110	390,049	491	$31.3B	$80,294/yr
Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices NAICS 551114	338,280	3,705	$48.1B	$142,163/yr
Temporary Help Services NAICS 561320	297,444	3,393	$12.9B	$43,296/yr
Supermarkets and Other Grocery (except Convenience) Stores NAICS 445110	248,045	3,739	$7.5B	$30,219/yr
Home Health Care Services NAICS 621610	224,946	4,550	$6.5B	$28,785/yr
Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) NAICS 621111	217,413	21,500	$22.9B	$105,429/yr
Commercial Banking NAICS 522110	150,635	6,553	$15.2B	$101,193/yr
Religious Organizations NAICS 813110	150,026	14,784	$4.3B	$28,620/yr
Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities NAICS 624120	130,438	2,233	$2.3B	$17,456/yr
Engineering Services NAICS 541330	125,756	5,772	$15.4B	$122,216/yr
Hotels (except Casino Hotels) and Motels NAICS 721110	116,468	5,643	$4.0B	$34,046/yr
Support Activities for Oil and Gas Operations NAICS 213112	116,465	4,025	$13.3B	$114,154/yr
New Car Dealers NAICS 441110	106,708	1,720	$9.2B	$85,825/yr
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors NAICS 238220	105,623	8,966	$7.4B	$69,843/yr
Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities) NAICS 623110	103,808	1,546	$4.0B	$38,966/yr
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors NAICS 238210	99,988	6,124	$7.3B	$72,970/yr
Elementary and Secondary Schools NAICS 611110	96,933	1,621	$4.7B	$48,256/yr
Custom Computer Programming Services NAICS 541511	95,646	6,411	$11.7B	$122,196/yr

Breadth peers near Texas's private employment

Nearest other states by Census CBP level-2 private employment (12,011,416 in Texas), excluding TX.

Florida 9,988,508 New York 8,766,053 California 16,336,816 Pennsylvania 5,684,514 Illinois 5,659,820 Ohio 4,867,738 Georgia 4,374,151 North Carolina 4,036,587

Disclaimer: Texas (TX) 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 Texas businesses.

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

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

Data sourced from official public datasets for Texas (TX). See our methodology.

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