Employment
1,015,983
Total employees (Census CBP)
Construction ·NAICS 23821
NAICS 23821 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors - Industry Benchmarks
$76,545/yr average annual pay, with 4,530 SBA loans on record for NAICS 23821.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- $76,545/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 23821
California leads Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,545/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors sits inside Construction, a sector that runs a 6.3% net margin overall.
83,342 establishments employ 1,015,983 workers (12.2/location) at $76,545/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$76,545/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
83,342
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 64,210; establishment count increased by 1,500. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $77.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 12.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors NAICS 238210 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 120,017 |
| Texas | 99,988 |
| Florida | 70,151 |
| New York | 54,886 |
| Georgia | 32,920 |
| Illinois | 32,466 |
| North Carolina | 31,006 |
| Pennsylvania | 30,580 |
| Ohio | 30,197 |
| Arizona | 28,859 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
4,530
Total Loan Volume
$1.9B
Avg Loan Size
$426K
Jobs Supported
49,457
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4,137 (91%)
504 393 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
385 loans in this industry
New Business Share
20.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 494
2021 572
2022 607
2023 740
2024 941
2025 1,047
2026 129
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 23821 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors?
83,342 business establishments. Together they employ 1,015,983 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors?
$76,545/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors employment?
California leads with 120,017 workers. Texas (99,988) and Florida (70,151) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors receive?
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors businesses received 4,530 SBA loans totaling $1.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $426K. These loans supported 49,457 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 95% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Software Publishers 1,011,187
- Offices of Dentists 1,028,889
- Couriers and Express Delivery Services 1,036,160
Benchmarking Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Construction
- 83,342 establishments, 1,015,983 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 4,530 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 23821 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.