DC and Dallas Metros Lead Nation in YOY Increases in Contractor Sales Potential
There was a mix of the usual suspects and surprising leaders in Electrical Marketing’s new analysis of electrical contractor sales potential for March 2025-May 2025. The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) lead all metros with an increase of $101 million in sales potential (up +6% year-over-year (YOY)) followed by the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA with $68.6 million in new potential (+2.7% YOY).
With all the construction going on in “data center alley” west of downtown Washington, DC, in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, it’s not surprising that the DC metro area is seeing major growth, or that the Dallas is market leader considering the incredible run of new commercial, retail and even residential construction it has enjoyed over the past decade.
The next three MSAs topping the list are a bit surprising. The Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN, MSA, saw electrical contractor sales potential increase $46.8% (+8.7%) to $593.7 million and the Portland-South Portland, ME, MSA, is enjoying a +41.1% increase to $576.3 million.
An impressive 39 MSAs tripled EM’s national YOY growth rate for electrical sales potential of +2.5%. Surprisingly, when measured by this metric, the top six metros were all in New England and all had estimated contractor growth rates of better than +25% YOY: Manchester, NH (+41.3%); Portland-South Portland, ME (+41.1%); Lewiston-Auburn, ME (+40%); Pittsfield, MA (+33.6%); and the Worcester, MA-CT MSA (+26%). There’s a chance these increases may have been the result of a change in how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects employment data for New England. Also, the data for New England is from 4Q 2024 and 4Q 2023, as more recent data wasn’t available from BLS.
Sales potential estimates were developed with a $78,775 sales-per-employee multiplier from Electrical Wholesaling’s Market Planning Guide, and a three-month average for BLS’ March 2025-May 2025 construction employment data. Electrical Marketing estimates that electrical contractor employment accounts for 13% of that data because of verified long-term trends in that data.