Electrical Sales Growth Slows in Late 2023 But Maintains +2% YOY Increase Over 2022
Although U.S. electrical sales may have slowed down a bit in late 2023 according to EM’s latest sales potential forecasts by sliding -0.3% to a $147.4 billion pace (not adjusted for inflation), but they are still up +2% over the same time period in 2022.
As you can see in the chart below, individual state performance varied widely, with 18 states topping the U.S. total sales growth rate and 32 states struggling to keep that pace for the Sept. 2023 – Nov. 2023 time period. On a percentage basis, Kentucky (+2.6%) and West Virginia (+2.1%) led all states, while Alaska (-14.9%) and North Dakota (-5.3%) were the laggards. Kentucky added $52.5 million in sales potential while West Virginia added $12 million in that Sept. 2023 to Nov. 2023 time period.
Electrical Marketing’s sales estimates use the sales-per-employee multipliers from Electrical Wholesaling's 2024 Market Planning Guide of $78,775 per electrical contractor employee and $2,650 per industrial employee.
Kentucky also had the highest YOY growth rate, with a +8.6% annual increase of $166.6 million to $2.1 billion in total sales potential. Some of this growth may be due to the multi-billion investment that Ford and SK On, a South Korean battery manufacturer are making in the state. A report at Louisville Public Media (www.lpm.org) said Ford and SK On are jointly investing $5.8 billion in the two BlueOval EV plants, which together are expected to create about 5,000 jobs.
Three states topped Kentucky in their total increase in electrical sales potential on a YOY basis – Texas with a $428.1 million to 13.7 billion; California with a $293.2 million increase to $16.6 billion; and Ohio, with a $189.9 million to $5.6 billion.
