Texas had five of the 10-fastest growing counties in the United States, when measured by year-over-year (YOY) electrical contractor employment changes through Q1 2022. The state’s Harris County (Houston); San Patricio County (Corpus Christi); Dallas County (Dallas); Bexar County (San Antonio) and Travis County (Austin) added a combined total of 5,144 electrical contractor employees — representing $376.9 million in additional estimated contractor sales potential, according to EM estimates.
California had three counties in EM’s top 50 counties for electrical contractor employment growth (see page 2): San Diego County (San Diego); Orange County (Los Angeles) and San Bernardino County in Southern California’s Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA and seven counties in the Top 25. The YOY employment gains were fairly moderate in that only Houston’s Harris County and Corpus Christi’s San Patricio County gained more than 1,000 electrical contractor employees, and only 15 counties gained 500 or more employees.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data, these 50 counties together added 23,906 employees YOY through Q1 2022, representing $18.3 billion in estimated electrical contractor sales potential when you use the $73,268 per employee multiplier from Electrical Wholesaling’s 2022 Market Planning Guide.
BLS’ county-level employment data has some advantages and disadvantages. It can help you zero in on the fastest-growing areas in a metropolitan area, but because the data is usually at least five-to-six months old, you can be late identifying any late-breaking shifts in employment trends. Unfortunately the 2Q 2022 county-level electrical contractor employment won't be released until early December.