Revenue Per Employee Benchmarks by Industry
Revenue per employee is the cleanest single measure of how much output a business gets per person. These figures come straight from the US Census Bureau — 21 industries, broken down by headcount band, for firms with 10 to 99 people.
| Band | 10–19 | 20–49 | 50–99 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue/employee | $130,808 | $140,384 | $144,917 |
2017: $106,636 → 2022: $137,766 (+29.2% nominal, largely price inflation)
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Why this metric
Most operational metrics are internal — they tell you whether this quarter beat last quarter. Revenue per employee is one of the few you can benchmark against the whole economy, because the Census publishes both halves of the fraction.
It is also the number that moves when automation works. If agents take repetitive work off your team and you grow without hiring proportionally, revenue per employee goes up. If you automate and it changes nothing, it doesn’t.
All 21 industries at a glance
Firms with 10–99 employees, reference year 2022:
| Industry | 10–19 | 20–49 | 50–99 | 2017→2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale Trade | $1,036,713 | $1,097,401 | $1,192,085 | +37.5% |
| Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers | $512,077 | $479,936 | $502,508 | +30.6% |
| Retail Trade | $329,022 | $422,193 | $586,182 | +32.2% |
| Construction | $313,738 | $362,470 | $398,254 | +28% |
| Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services | $288,980 | $302,193 | $319,050 | +35.8% |
| Manufacturing | $230,989 | $272,924 | $330,966 | +28.1% |
| Computer Systems Design and Related Services | $278,237 | $277,855 | $285,407 | +28.4% |
| Legal Services | $234,116 | $252,602 | $269,352 | +18.3% |
| Building Equipment Contractors | $220,405 | $247,018 | $271,733 | +25.9% |
| Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services | $252,735 | $242,399 | $239,055 | +24.6% |
| Truck Transportation | $266,073 | $241,783 | $212,281 | +24.9% |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services | $216,794 | $233,420 | $254,633 | +26.5% |
| Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services | $210,894 | $230,855 | $246,608 | +21.2% |
| Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities | $194,138 | $239,001 | $272,812 | +21.5% |
| Transportation and Warehousing | $260,903 | $231,257 | $185,227 | +23.9% |
| Offices of Physicians | $198,714 | $215,583 | $226,249 | +20.3% |
| Ambulatory Health Care Services | $146,230 | $150,403 | $148,318 | +15.2% |
| Offices of Dentists | $142,064 | $151,159 | $166,671 | +15.5% |
| Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services | $130,808 | $140,384 | $144,917 | +29.2% |
| Employment Services | $172,626 | $125,886 | $99,764 | +35% |
| Restaurants and Other Eating Places | $73,094 | $65,447 | $68,748 | +33.3% |
Three things to know before you compare yourself.
These are averages, not medians. Each figure is total receipts divided by total employment within a band, so the largest firm in the band pulls it upward. The Census publishes no distribution, so nobody can tell you the median — including the sites that claim to.
“Receipts” means different things by sector. Wholesale and retail figures are gross merchandise sales, not margin. Manufacturing is value of shipments including intra-company transfers. Advertising agencies report commissions, not media billings. Comparing a wholesaler to a law firm is meaningless — the tool shows a warning wherever this applies.
The data is from 2022. Census publishes receipts only in years ending in 2 and 7, so this is the newest available and the next release is 2027 data in roughly 2030. It is about three and a half years old. We have not inflation-adjusted it, because that would be an estimate presented as a measurement.
Where the numbers come from
US Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2022 Annual Data Tables by Establishment Industry — reference year 2022, released April 2025. This is a near-universe dataset built from the Economic Census and IRS records, not a sample survey.
Each figure is the sum of receipts across the non-overlapping 10–99 employment-size bands, divided by the sum of employment across those same bands. You can reproduce it from the source spreadsheet — sheet “US & states detailed sizes”, filtered to State 00.
Every cell used carries Census noise flag “G”, meaning under 2% noise was applied. The Census uses noise infusion rather than cell suppression, so nothing here is estimated to fill a gap. We validated the totals against a second SUSB file segmented by receipts size instead of employment size; they matched to the dollar.
Excluded from SUSB entirely: crop and animal production, rail transportation, the Postal Service, private households, public administration, and all non-employer businesses. See the methodology and glossary.
The sharpest criticism of this data
For businesses that are out of scope to the Economic Census and operate multiple establishments, the Census estimates receipts using payroll-to-receipts ratios. In those cells, revenue per employee is partly circular with payroll. That is the most legitimate objection to any conclusion drawn from this dataset, and you should know it before quoting the numbers at someone.
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