Short answer
The Fresno metro (Fresno and Madera counties) had 2,078 construction establishments with paid employees in 2023, employing 21,710 people with $1.60 billion in annual payroll, according to Census County Business Patterns. Fresno County has 1,770. Average pay is $73,905, below the California figure of $84,200. Every contractor needs a Contractors State License Board license, and CSLB publishes lists of licensed contractors by classification and county.
- 2,078 construction establishments and 21,710 employees in Fresno and Madera counties in 2023.
- Specialty trades are 68% of establishments; electrical and plumbing or HVAC firms alone employ 6,406 people.
- No establishment in the metro has 500 or more employees; 30 have 100 or more.
- 3,146 of the 3,518 housing units authorized in the metro in 2025 were single-family homes.
- Fresno County's Measure C transportation sales tax runs through 2027 and has raised more than $2 billion locally.
On this page
This report is for homeowners, growers and businesses hiring a contractor in the Fresno area, contractors looking for subcontractors or partners, people weighing a job in the trades, and B2B sellers whose customers are Central Valley builders. It covers the Census count, what's being built, how to check and list contractors, and where the public work comes from.
Fresno and Madera counties in numbers
US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), Fresno, CA Metro Area (CBSA 23420):
| Measure | Fresno metro, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Construction establishments | 2,078 |
| Employees | 21,710 |
| Annual payroll | $1,604,473,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 10.4 |
| Average annual pay | $73,905 |
| Share of US construction establishments | 0.26% (of 814,557) |
| County | Establishments | Employees | Employees per establishment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresno County, California | 1,770 | 19,803 | 11.2 |
| Madera County, California | 308 | 1,907 | 6.2 |
Average pay is about $10,300 below the California construction average of $84,200 and a little below the national $76,580 (our calculation from the CBP state files). Madera County's contractors are smaller, mostly residential and trade firms north of the San Joaquin River.
What Fresno's contractors do
| Type of work (NAICS) | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Specialty trade contractors (238) | 1,415 | 14,900 |
| Plumbing, heating and air conditioning (238220) | 279 | 3,110 |
| Electrical contractors (238210) | 249 | 3,296 |
| Drywall and insulation (238310) | 74 | 1,222 |
| Painting (238320) | 113 | 566 |
| Roofing (238160) | 84 | 706 |
| Concrete foundation and structure (238110) | 63 | 853 |
| Site preparation (238910) | 79 | 900 |
| Residential remodelers (236118) | 245 | 1,160 |
| New single-family general contractors (236115) | 149 | 617 |
| For-sale homebuilders (236117) | 26 | 692 |
| Commercial and institutional builders (236220) | 116 | 1,556 |
| Water and sewer line construction (237110) | 47 | 924 |
| Highway, street and bridge (2373) | 29 | 537 |
Specialty trades are 68% of establishments and 69% of jobs. The 26 for-sale homebuilders average 27 employees each, against about four for custom single-family builders, so a few production builders drive most new-home volume. Water and sewer line contractors are 2.3% of the metro's establishments, against 1.3% nationally.
Size
| Employees per establishment | Establishments |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 1,191 |
| 5 to 9 | 370 |
| 10 to 19 | 254 |
| 20 to 49 | 189 |
| 50 to 99 | 44 |
| 100 to 249 | 27 |
| 250 to 499 | 3 |
| 500 to 999 | Not published |
| 1,000 or more | Not published |
The published cells add up to all 2,078 establishments, so none has 500 or more employees. In broader bands, 1,815 (87.3%) have 1 to 19 employees, 233 have 20 to 99 and 30 have 100 or more. These are payroll locations, not companies, and owner-operators without employees aren't in the count.
What's being built
The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey counted 3,518 housing units authorized in the Fresno metro in 2025, down from 3,782 in 2024, with an estimated value of $1.21 billion. Of those, 3,146 were single-family homes, 82 were in two- to four-unit buildings and 290 were in buildings of five or more units. That's the opposite of coastal California, where apartments make up a large share of new units, and it's why framers, roofers, concrete crews and residential electricians are the core customers here.
How to check and list Fresno contractors
California requires a Contractors State License Board (CSLB) license for any job of $1,000 or more in labor and materials, or any job that needs a permit. For Fresno, two CSLB tools do most of the work:
- Instant License Check for a single firm: active status, classification, bond, workers' compensation and complaint disclosures.
- List of Contractors by Classification and County, on CSLB's public data portal, for building a list: for example, every C-39 roofing contractor or every B general building contractor with a Fresno County address.
When you hire, match the class to the work (a B general building contractor for a remodel touching several trades, a C-10 for electrical, an A general engineering contractor for site and underground work), confirm the bond and workers' compensation are current, and check permits with the City of Fresno or, outside city limits, Fresno County's permit portal.
Public work in the valley
Two local sources of public construction are worth tracking:
- Measure C. Fresno County's half-cent transportation sales tax, first approved in 1986 and extended for 2007 to 2027, has raised more than $2 billion locally and helped fund more than $8 billion of projects, according to the Fresno County Transportation Authority. It pays for street repair and paving in the county's 15 cities, highway and county road improvements and transit. Its current term ends in 2027.
- Fresno County public works bids. The county advertises about 10 to 20 construction projects a year on Bid Express, including job order contracts for Class A general engineering and Class B general building contractors, bridge replacements and asphalt overlays. Signing up for its notices also puts a firm in the county's contractor database.
Firms that bid this work must also register with California's Department of Industrial Relations as public works contractors, which makes DIR's contractor search another list of locally active civil and building firms. No SEC-registered listed construction company is headquartered in the Fresno metro.
Selling to Fresno contractors
| Size band | Establishments | Who usually decides |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 19 employees | 1,815 | The owner, usually the license qualifier |
| 20 to 99 employees | 233 | Owner with an estimator, project manager or office manager |
| 100 or more | 30 | Operations, purchasing and safety leaders |
Owners of small contractors spend the working day on job sites, so early-morning and late-afternoon calls reach more of them. For the person to call at each firm, see our guide on finding decision makers.
Illustrative example. Raisin City Rebar is a made-up company with made-up prices; the counts are from CBP 2023 and the Building Permits Survey.
Raisin City Rebar (raisinrebar.example) cuts and bends reinforcing steel for foundations and site work. Its list is concrete foundation contractors (63 establishments), for-sale homebuilders (26), commercial builders (116) and site preparation firms (79): 284 accounts. If it wins 15% (43) and each buys rebar for an average of 40 jobs a year at $3,500 a job, that's about $6.0 million a year. With 3,146 single-family homes authorized in 2025, the research that matters is which builders have the next phase permitted. Given a description of those builders, Bebop finds them and writes a playbook for each.
Sources for names
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| CSLB public data portal | Lists of licensed contractors by classification and county, plus the instant license check |
| Fresno County Public Works and Planning | Permit portal for county permits and construction bidding opportunities |
| Measure C | What the transportation sales tax funds across the county's cities |
| DIR public works | Registered public works contractors and prevailing wage rules |
For the statewide picture, see California construction companies; for the region's trucking firms, the Fresno trucking companies report.
Next step: the construction companies industry guide covers how to segment contractors and time your outreach.
Sources
- County Business Patterns 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Building Permits Survey, annual CBSA data 2024 and 2025, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Public data portal, Contractors State License Board, accessed 30 October 2026
- 2026 Contractors State License Law and Reference Book (Business and Professions Code section 7048), Contractors State License Board, 2026
- Construction Bidding Opportunities, County of Fresno Department of Public Works and Planning, accessed 30 October 2026
- Measure C, Fresno County Transportation Authority, accessed 30 October 2026
- Public Works, California Department of Industrial Relations, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many construction companies are in Fresno?
The US Census Bureau counted 2,078 construction establishments with paid employees in the Fresno metro area, which is Fresno and Madera counties, in 2023. They employed 21,710 people. Fresno County has 1,770 and Madera County 308. These are locations with payroll rather than companies, and self-employed contractors with no employees aren't counted, so the number of licensed contractors is higher.
How do I find a licensed contractor in Fresno?
Use the Contractors State License Board's public data portal. Its List of Contractors by Classification and County lets you pull every licensed contractor of a given type, such as B general building or C-39 roofing, with a Fresno County address, and its instant license check verifies one firm's status, bond, workers' compensation and complaint history. Then check the firm's permits with the city or county.
Do you need a license for construction work in Fresno?
Yes, for almost all paid work. California requires a Contractors State License Board license for any job where labor and materials total $1,000 or more, or any job that needs a building permit, and the limit applies to the whole project, not to split contracts. Anyone who advertises as a contractor or employs helpers needs a license regardless of job size.
What kind of construction is growing in Fresno?
Single-family housing dominates. The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey counted 3,518 housing units authorized in the Fresno metro in 2025, and 3,146 of them were single-family homes. Public transportation work is funded locally by Measure C, Fresno County's half-cent sales tax, which runs through 2027, and the county advertises about 10 to 20 construction projects a year.