Call Center and Telemarketing Bureau Revenue Benchmark

Average Call Center Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every telemarketing bureau and contact center with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of centers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$7,601,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $25.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 3,365 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $7,601,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, NAICS 561422. The Census category is Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, which counts centers making or receiving calls and messages on behalf of clients for sales, service and support. Telephone answering services that only take messages are counted separately. Classified separately in group 5614: 561410 Document Preparation Services; 561421 Telephone Answering Services; 561431 Private Mail Centers, and 6 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 47.7 to 56.1 percent. This benchmark covers Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, as a whole, and this category accounts for 3,365 of the 30,490 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 51.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a high share because agents, supervisors and trainers are the product and a center has little to buy beyond seats, software and telephony.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes telephony, software, facilities and the recruiting cost of a workforce with high turnover, which together carry the rest of a center's spending.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 119.6 people, and the industry averaged 1.4 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a floor of agents across shifts with supervisors, trainers and quality staff.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Call Center and Telemarketing Bureau: what agent hours, contracts and turnover do to a center's average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Inbound service or outbound sales? Inbound customer service contracts pay per hour or per call for a staffed queue, while outbound sales and lead generation pay per contact or per result and carry regulatory limits. The mix decides revenue per agent hour and the risk in each contract.
• How is the work billed? Hourly, per-call and performance-based pricing produce different revenue for the same floor of agents, and clients push toward paying for outcomes. The pricing model behind a center's figure is not published.
• How high is turnover? Agent turnover is a defining feature of the trade, and every departure costs recruiting, training and lost productivity. Retention shapes the payroll share on this page more than wage rates do.
• Which rules apply to outbound calls? Telemarketing rules on do-not-call lists, calling hours, consent and automated dialing are enforced federally and by states, and violations carry penalties. Compliance is a permanent cost for outbound work.
• Where are the seats? Offshore and nearshore centers compete on cost, while domestic and remote agents compete on language, quality and data rules, and many centers now use agents working from home. Location and remote models shape a center's cost base.
• How concentrated are the clients? A center serving one or two large clients can lose most of its volume when a contract moves, while a diversified client base spends more on sales and setup. Concentration is a central risk an average cannot show.