Screen Printing Shop Revenue Benchmark

Average Screen Printing Shop Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every commercial screen printer with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of shops gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$2,150,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $12.5 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 5,807 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $2,150,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Commercial Screen Printing, NAICS 323113. The category covers commercial screen printers printing on garments, signs and other materials. General commercial printers are counted in a separate category. Classified separately in group 3231: 323111 Commercial Printing (except Screen and Books); 323117 Books Printing; 323120 Support Activities for Printing. 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 Varies by cohort

Printing and Related Support Activities, NAICS 3231, 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 53.9 to 64.5 percent. This benchmark covers Printing and Related Support Activities, NAICS 3231, as a whole, and this category accounts for 5,807 of the 22,844 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, Commercial Screen Printing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 25.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share because the blank garments and products a shop decorates are a large part of every order, and presses and dryers do much of the production work.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes garments, inks, screens and equipment, which together carry most of what a shop spends on an order.

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, Commercial Screen Printing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 12.3 people, and the industry counted 1.0 employer establishments per firm. A shop of that size runs a production floor with press operators, an art department and a sales counter, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade of independent single-location shops.

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

Screen Printing Shop: what garments, setups and seasons do to a shop's average revenue.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much of the order is the blank garment? Shirts, hoodies and hats bought wholesale pass through the invoice and their cost swings with cotton prices and supplier terms. Revenue counts the garment and the printing together, so the figure overstates what a shop earns for its work.
• What does a setup cost? Every design needs screens, separations and press setup before a single shirt is printed, so short runs carry high fixed cost per piece. Order size and repeat designs decide whether a shop's hours pay, and receipts do not show run lengths.
• Which season fills the calendar? School spirit wear, team uniforms, summer camps, festivals and holiday orders create peaks with slack between them, and a shop must staff and stock for the surge. An annual average hides a lumpy year.
• Screen printing, embroidery or direct-to-garment? Embroidery, heat transfer and digital direct-to-garment printing serve different order sizes and clients, and many shops run several methods. The technology mix changes equipment cost, labor per piece and which jobs a shop can win.
• Do online group stores drive volume? Web stores for teams, schools and companies let members order individually while the shop prints in batches, adding steady volume but also fulfillment and shipping work. How much of a shop's revenue arrives this way varies widely.
• Who competes for the same order? Online custom apparel platforms, promotional product distributors and local competitors all bid for the same team order, and price transparency online is high. A shop's niche and service level matter more than the national average.