Houston's Harris County Takes Top Spot in Electrical Contractor Sales Potential
Electrical Marketing’s latest analysis of electrical contractor sales potential once again highlighted the consolidated nature of the electrical market.
According to EM's analysis of Q3 2023 construction employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for more than 900 counties with electrical contractor employees, the Top 50 counties accounted for an estimated $27.3 billion of the $83.5 billion in sales, roughly 33% of all electrical contractor sales. Four states accounted for more than half of the counties ranked in the Top 50 for contractor business: California (9); Florida (7); New York (6) and Texas (5).
Harris County in the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ranked #1 in EM's Top 50 Counties (see chart on this page). There are an estimated 21,895 employees in Harris County in Q3 2023, 674 more employees in Q3 2023 than in Q3 2022 (+3.2%). Harris County edged out Phoenix's Maricopa County, which had 21,251 employees; Los Angeles County at 19,641 employees; and the Los Angeles metro's Orange County at 13,647 employees.
Several counties showed a loss in electrical contractor employment of over 300 employees: Burke County in the Augusta-Richmond County, GA MSA (-396); Brazoria County in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX MSA (-356); and King County in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA (-316).
EM estimates electrical contractor employment at 13% of total construction employment, its historical norm over the past two decades. It uses this employment data along with sales-per-employee electrical contractor multiplier of $78,775 from EW's 2024 Market Planning Guide.
