Characteristics of Employer Firms
Construction businesses vary widely in many ways, including their ownership, the types of customers served, types of workers employed, and when the business was acquired. This information is necessary to understand the composition of construction employer firms, which can build understanding about industry growth and employment trends (e.g., full-time, paid day laborers).
This interactive dashboard highlights data trends for characteristics of construction employer firms. The Year filter updates both the charts and the bolded and underlined key findings.
Following the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data source, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and recommended citation. This interactive data dashboard corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming PDF version of the Construction Chart Book-7th edition, which will be published this summer. Data will be updated annually as available. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey, including the Characteristics of Businesses and Characteristics of Business Owners for employer firms. Data includes all nonfarm employer businesses, included publicly held companies.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). Annual Business Survey: Business Characteristics of Respondent Employer Firms by Industry, Sex, Ethnicity, Race, and Veteran Status for the U.S., States, and Metro Areas. https://data.census.gov/.
- The Annual Business Survey uses the collection year when referenced by the U.S. Census Bureau. For example, 2022 Annual Business Survey data covers 2021 data. Years shown on this page are for the reference year, not data collection year.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). Annual Business Survey: Owner Characteristics of Respondent Employer Firms by Sector, Sex, Ethnicity, Race, and Veteran Status for the U.S., States, and Metro Areas. https://data.census.gov/.
- The Annual Business Survey uses the collection year when referenced by the U.S. Census Bureau. For example, 2022 Annual Business Survey data covers 2021 data. Years shown on this page are for the reference year, not data collection year.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Acquired – includes, but is not limited to, creating the business, bying the business, and inheriting the business.
- Employer firms – include all firms that reported a payroll during the reference year with receipts of $1,000 or more.
- Family-owned – include firms in which two or more members of the family own the majority of the business, including spouses/unmarried partners, parents/guardians, children, siblings, or close relatives.
- Spouse-owned – include firms in which spouses/unmarried partners jointly owned the business.
- Type of workers – describes the type of workers used by businesses.
- Contractors – contractors, subcontractors, independent contractors, or outside consultants.
- Full-time paid employees – those who received a W-2 from the business and work 35 hours or more per week.
- Paid day laborer – those who are hired to perform work on a daily or project-by-project basis.
- Part-time employees – those who received a W-2 from the business and work less than 35 hours per week.
- Temporary/leased – includes workers obtained from a temporary help service and those leased from a leasing service or a professional employer organization.
Chart Notes
- Averages are shown when more than one year is selected using the Year Filter.
- For year acquired, not reported is not shown; thus, sum to less than 100%. In addition, when multiple years are selected the year construction business acquired defaults to show “2000 to 2019” as smaller year categories are inconsistent across multiple year. Single years show more detailed information.
- More than one type of customer and worker could be reported; thus, sum to more than 100%.
Recommended Citation and Data File
Recommended Citation
CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training. [2024]. Characteristics of Construction Employer Firms [dashboard].
Data File
The Data File contains an average of all years included (2017-2021) and annual data. If interested in additional year combinations, please contact us at: [email protected].