When EM’s editors started digging into the electrical contractor employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that they use to develop sale potential estimates at the county level, some very familiar names rose to the top of the list (see table below). We estimate that seven counties have estimated electrical contractor sales potential of more than $1 billion. These counties are Phoenix’s Maricopa County, AZ ($2.4 billion); Houston’s Harris County, TX ($1.8 billion); Los Angeles County, CA ($1.7 billion); Dallas County, TX ($1.4 billion); Orange County, CA ($1.1 billion);  Loudon County, VA ($1.1 billion); and San Diego County, CA ($1.7 billion).
The one county that stuck out was Virginia’s Loudon County because in  terms of electrical contractor employment and population it’s a smaller than the other metropolitan areas. However, it’s also in the middle of “Data Center Alley,” the largest concentration of data centers in the United States. And in terms of our estimated year-over-year increase in electrical contractor sales potential, Loudon County’s increase of $270.5 million was only surpassed by the Houston metro’s Harris County increase of $289.2 million. 
Long-time EM subscribers probably remember reading many times about how concentrated the electrical economy is when measured by many metrics, including contractor or industrial employment, population and building permits. The same market reality surfaces again in electrical contractor sales potential at the county level, according to our calculations. The 10 largest counties account for 14.8% of total estimated electrical contractor sales; the Top 50 counties come in at 37.7% of estimated contractor sales; and the 100 largest counties account for 52.4% of total estimated electrical contractor sales.