One handy electrical indicator for gauging the size of a local electrical market is its electrician employment, because electrical contractors can easily account for 50% of a market’s total electrical potential.
To analyze the changes in electrician employment since 2010 at the local, state and national level, EM’s editors recently did a deep dive into the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) reports. Along with employment data, BLS publishes hourly and annual wage data each May.
The most recent data available for May 2022 showed that over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022, 16 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) added at least 1,000 electricians (see chart on page 3). If you have been tracking Electrical Marketing’s data on the fastest-growing electrical markets over the past few years, you won’t be surprised to learn that the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ MSA was at the top of this list with a 4,440-increase (+9.1%), or that it added 1,030 electricians from 2021-2022. Other markets with big-time increase in electrician employment were Washington, DC; Charlotte, NC; Sacramento, CA; and Austin, TX. All had increases of at least 1,900 electricians. Data for all MSAs and states available for download by EM subscribers at www.electricalmarketing.com.
If you need to develop a more current estimate for electrician employment in a local market or state than what's currently available from BLS, take the total construction employment figure and multiply it by 9%, the historical average for electricians as a percentage of total construction employment. When you have an estimate for electrical contractor employment, multiply that number by 70%, because it's the average percentage that electricians account of the typical electrical contractor's total employee count.
Click here for historical electrician data for more than 300 MSAs and all 50 states