Construction companies in Los Angeles: 25,486 contractors, the license check and where the rebuilding is

This report is for homeowners and developers choosing a contractor in Los Angeles or Orange County, subcontractors and suppliers looking for partners, people researching the market, and B2B sellers who sell to builders and trades. Every figure comes from a public source named in the text.

Los Angeles and Orange County in Census data

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area (CBSA 31080):

The two counties hold 29.4% of California's 86,763 construction establishments. Orange County has less than a third of the metro's establishments but 42% of its construction jobs, because its contractors run larger.

In three bands: 23,116 establishments (90.7%) have 1 to 19 employees, 1,995 have 20 to 99, and 375 have 100 or more.

What CBP counts. Establishments (single locations) with paid employees in the pay period including March 12, 2023, not companies: a contractor with a yard in Commerce and an office in Irvine counts twice. Self-employed contractors with no payroll aren't included, which matters in a market with this many one-person trades. The figures here cover NAICS sector 23 only, so engineering firms and building material dealers are excluded.

A market of trades

Two things stand out. Remodelers are the biggest single group of builders, with 5,124 establishments averaging fewer than four employees each: Los Angeles mostly rebuilds and adds to what's there. And heavy and civil engineering is just 2.7% of establishments, though its firms average 29 employees, so a handful of large contractors carry the region's transit, water and highway work.

Where the work is: the city's permit records

The City of Los Angeles publishes every building permit issued since 2020 as open data, with type, valuation and community plan area. From that dataset:

New building permits rose 20% in 2025, and one area explains most of it. The Brentwood to Pacific Palisades community plan area, which includes the neighborhoods burned in the January 2025 Palisades Fire, received 699 new building permits in 2025 with $445.4 million in reported valuation, more than any other part of the city. In the first nine months of 2026 it received another 1,015, worth $715.7 million. Valuations are the applicant's estimate, so treat them as a guide to scale. Altadena and other unincorporated areas hit by the Eaton Fire are permitted by Los Angeles County Public Works, not the city.

Across the whole metro, the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey counts 27,242 new housing units authorized in 2025, against 26,781 in 2024. Of the 2025 units, 12,883 were single-family homes and 12,525 were in buildings of five or more units.

The California license, and what it tells you

California licenses contractors statewide through the Contractors State License Board (CSLB). A license is required if the job needs a building permit, uses employees, or is worth $1,000 or more in combined labor and materials. The classification shows what a firm may contract for:

CSLB rules worth knowing before you sign: every licensee carries a $25,000 contractor license bond; a home improvement down payment can't exceed 10% of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less; and roofing, concrete, HVAC, asbestos abatement and tree service licensees must carry workers' compensation even with no employees. Contractors on public works must also register with the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), at $400 a year.

Vetting a Los Angeles contractor

1. Look up the license in the CSLB license check: active status, the right classification for your job, the bond and the workers' compensation record.
2. Match the name. The business name on the license should match the one on the contract and the permit.
3. Ask for permit numbers from two or three recent jobs like yours and find them in the city's permit data, or with LA County Public Works for unincorporated areas.
4. Check the payment schedule. A down payment above the CSLB limit is a red flag; later payments should follow completed work.
5. For public projects, confirm the firm appears in DIR's public works contractor search.

Public companies headquartered in the metro

Figures are company-wide from each 10-K; most of the work happens outside Los Angeles. The region's large private builders don't publish revenue, so they're not ranked here. For the national ranking, see the largest construction companies.

Prospecting Los Angeles contractors

The license data does the segmenting for you: CSLB's public data portal lists licensees by classification and county, so you can pull every C-10 electrician in Orange County or every B contractor in Los Angeles County. DIR registration marks the firms that bid prevailing-wage public work. Permits show who is busy now.

Illustrative example. The company and its assumptions are invented; the establishment count is from CBP 2023.

Arroyo Payroll (arroyopayroll.example) sells certified payroll software for prevailing-wage jobs. Its best fit is contractors with 20 to 99 employees: 1,995 establishments in the metro. If 40% bid public works, that's about 800 firms, which it confirms one by one against DIR's registry. Winning 10% at $4,800 a year is 80 customers and $384,000 in annual revenue. The slow part is learning which firms just won a public contract; Bebop researches each account in a list like this and suggests the opening angle.

Sources for names

Next step: compare the market two hours south in the San Diego construction companies report, or build the list with the construction companies industry guide.