Human Resources Consulting Firm Revenue Benchmark

Average HR Consulting Firm Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every human resources consulting firm with paid employees, from a solo-founded boutique with a few consultants to the offices of large advisory firms, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of offices gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$2,832,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $24.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 8,686 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $2,832,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Human Resources Consulting Services, NAICS 541612. The category covers firms advising on human resources matters such as compensation, benefits, recruitment strategy and organizational planning. Executive search firms, employment agencies and professional employer organizations are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5416: 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services; 541613 Marketing Consulting Services; 541614 Process, Physical Distribution, and Logistics Consulting Services, and 3 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

Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services, NAICS 5416, 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 41.7 to 47.5 percent. This benchmark covers Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services, NAICS 5416, as a whole, and this category accounts for 8,686 of the 222,321 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, Human Resources Consulting Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 45.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a high share because consulting revenue is the billed time of well-paid professionals, and beyond office space and software a firm has little else to buy.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, so in a partner-owned firm the founders' own billable work produces revenue that does not enter the payroll figure.

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, Human Resources Consulting Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 15.9 people, and the industry counted 1.1 employer establishments per firm. A firm of that size employs a team of consultants and analysts with a small support staff, and the establishments per firm figure shows that most HR consultancies are single-office businesses, with some national firms operating several.

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

Human Resources Consulting Firm: what an average across boutiques and large advisory offices cannot show.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• What kind of HR consulting is it? Compensation and benefits design, executive coaching, organizational restructuring and outsourced HR for small companies are different services with different price points and delivery models. The category counts them together, so revenue per office spans a wide range.
• Retainers or projects? Ongoing retainers with mid-sized employers provide predictable revenue, while restructuring and compensation projects bring larger fees on an irregular calendar. The revenue mix decides how stable a firm's year is, and the average cannot show it.
• How billable are the consultants? Consulting economics turn on utilization, meaning the share of a consultant's hours actually invoiced, after selling, training and administration. A firm with the same headcount and lower utilization reports much lower revenue for the same payroll.
• Who are the clients? Firms serving large corporations sell complex projects to HR departments, while those serving small businesses sell practical compliance and handbooks to owners with no HR staff. The client base shapes fees, sales cycles and the skills a firm needs.
• How much depends on the founders? In many boutiques the founding partners hold the client relationships and sell the work, and their departure or retirement can remove much of the revenue. That concentration is invisible in a revenue figure.
• Is technology part of the offer? Some firms bundle HR software, payroll or benefits administration with advice, which adds recurring revenue but also vendor costs and support obligations. Pure advisory firms and hybrid firms both appear in this category.