Short answer
Minnesota had 17,568 construction establishments with paid employees in 2023, employing 144,692 people with $13.29 billion in annual payroll, according to the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns. That's 2.16% of the US total and 16th among states. Average pay was $91,833, third-highest in the country. The 13 Minnesota counties of the Twin Cities metro hold 57% of establishments; St. Cloud, Duluth and Rochester are the next largest markets. No SEC-listed construction company is based in the state.
- 17,568 construction establishments and 144,692 employees in Minnesota in 2023; average pay of $91,833 ranks third among states.
- Heavy and civil contractors (913 establishments) employ about as many people as all 5,209 building contractors.
- 1,952 establishments are in counties outside any metro or micropolitan area, about 11% of the state.
- Residential builders need a DLI license with an examined qualifying person; most other contractors must register, or their subs are presumed employees.
- MnDOT has no prequalification, and its plan holders lists show who is looking at each state job.
On this page
- Minnesota construction at a glance
- Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota
- Size
- What Minnesota's contractors do
- Licensed, registered or exempt: how Minnesota sorts contractors
- How to check a Minnesota contractor
- Highway work with no prequalification
- Selling to Minnesota contractors
- Where to find names
- Sources
- Questions people ask
This report is for owners hiring a contractor anywhere in Minnesota, general contractors vetting subcontractors, and B2B sellers covering the state. It covers the statewide numbers, how the market splits between the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, Minnesota's licensing and registration rules, public highway work and the sources for names. For the metro on its own, see the Minneapolis-St. Paul construction report.
Minnesota construction at a glance
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), State of Minnesota:
| Measure | Minnesota, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Construction establishments | 17,568 |
| Employees (pay period including March 12) | 144,692 |
| Annual payroll | $13,287,519,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 8.2 |
| Average annual pay | $91,833 |
| Share of US construction establishments | 2.16% (of 814,557) |
| Rank by establishments (50 states and DC) | 16th |
Average construction pay across all states in the same dataset is $76,580, so Minnesota pays about $15,250 more. Only Alaska and Massachusetts pay more (our calculation from the CBP state file).
What CBP counts. Establishments are locations with paid employees, not companies; a contractor with a Twin Cities office and a Rochester branch counts twice. Owner-operators with no payroll aren't included, and employment is for the pay period including March 12.
Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota
From the CBP 2023 county file, grouped by the Census Bureau's metro and micro area county lists:
| Area (Minnesota counties only) | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis-St. Paul metro (13 counties) | 10,025 | 98,077 |
| St. Cloud metro (Benton, Stearns) | 724 | 9,761 |
| Duluth metro (St. Louis, Carlton) | 674 | 4,959 |
| Rochester metro (4 counties) | 657 | 5,237 |
| Brainerd micro area | 477 | 2,408 |
| Mankato metro | 308 | 2,124 |
| Counties outside any metro or micro area (40) | 1,952 | not summed |
The Twin Cities counties hold 57% of establishments and 68% of construction jobs; Hennepin County alone has 2,825 establishments and 36,847 employees. The surprise is St. Cloud: its 724 establishments average 13.5 employees, more than the Twin Cities' 9.8, with Stearns County at 540 establishments and 7,054 employees. We haven't added up employees for the 40 rural counties because five of them carry the Census Bureau's high-noise flag.
Size
| Employees per establishment | Establishments |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 12,683 |
| 5 to 9 | 2,355 |
| 10 to 19 | 1,268 |
| 20 to 49 | 818 |
| 50 to 99 | 254 |
| 100 to 249 | 150 |
| 250 to 499 | 24 |
| 500 to 999 | 12 |
| 1,000 or more | 4 |
In broader bands: 16,306 establishments (92.8%) have 1 to 19 employees, 1,072 have 20 to 99 and 190 have 100 or more.
What Minnesota's contractors do
| Type of work (NAICS) | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Construction of buildings (236) | 5,209 | 28,332 |
| Residential remodelers (236118) | 2,988 | 9,125 |
| New single-family home builders (236115) | 1,189 | 3,900 |
| Commercial and institutional builders (236220) | 662 | 11,232 |
| Heavy and civil engineering (237) | 913 | 28,303 |
| Power and communication lines (237130) | 162 | 15,652 |
| Highway, street and bridge (237310) | 268 | 6,790 |
| Specialty trade contractors (238) | 11,446 | 88,057 |
| Plumbing, heating and air conditioning (238220) | 1,816 | 21,283 |
| Electrical contractors (238210) | 1,534 | 17,317 |
| Site preparation (238910) | 994 | 6,716 |
| Poured concrete foundation and structure (238110) | 563 | 3,126 |
Heavy and civil contractors are about 5% of establishments but employ as many people as every builder in the state; power and communication line contractors alone average 97 employees each.
Licensed, registered or exempt: how Minnesota sorts contractors
The Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) keeps every category in one system, iMS, and publishes each as a free CSV file.
| Category | Who | Key requirements | Active in DLI's file, 30 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential building contractor | Contracts with homeowners for more than one special skill, or builds new homes | A qualifying person who passes DLI's exam (a "Q number", 14 hours of continuing education per renewal); liability insurance of $100,000 per occurrence, $300,000 aggregate and $25,000 property damage; workers' comp | 10,977 businesses |
| Residential remodeler | Existing homes only, no new homes or detached garages | Same as above | 427 |
| Residential roofer | Roofing only | Same as above | 138 |
| Certificate of exemption | Residential contractors with gross annual receipts under $15,000 | Exempt from licensing | 151 |
| Contractor registration | One specialty on residential jobs, and all commercial work by contractors without a residential license | Registration, renewed every two years | 15,265 |
| Licensed trades | Electrical, plumbing, boiler, elevator, high-pressure piping | Separate DLI licenses | Separate files |
Licensed residential contractors also pay into the Contractor Recovery Fund: a fee of $320 at under $1 million in gross annual receipts, $420 at $1 million to $5 million and $520 above that. The fund reimburses homeowners who hold a court judgment against a licensed contractor for fraud or failure to perform. The registration program exists to fight worker misclassification, and DLI's guidance is blunt: an unregistered subcontractor is presumed to be an employee of the contractor that hires it.
How to check a Minnesota contractor
- Search iMS by name or number and confirm the status reads "Issued" and the license type fits the job: a roofer license doesn't cover a kitchen remodel.
- For a subcontractor, check the registration before it starts work, so you aren't treated as its employer.
- Check the enforcement column in the CSV export; revoked and suspended records stay in the file.
- Confirm the business in the Secretary of State's business search, then get the insurance certificate and call the insurer.
Highway work with no prequalification
MnDOT states that it "has no prequalification requirements for submitting bids on construction projects." Bidders register as state suppliers for a SWIFT vendor number, subscribe to Bid Express and submit electronically with a proposal guaranty of 5% of the bid. Downloading plans from MnDOT's E-Plan Room adds a firm to the free plan holders list, so each project's list shows the primes and subs pricing it. Post-letting pages publish the bids.
On the housing side, the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey estimates Minnesota authorized 20,947 new housing units in 2025, about level with 20,913 in 2024: single-family units fell from 13,420 to 12,886 while units in buildings of five or more rose from 6,827 to 7,472. No SEC-registered listed construction company has its business address in Minnesota.
Selling to Minnesota contractors
| Size band | Establishments | Who usually decides |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 19 employees | 16,306 | The owner or the licensed qualifying person |
| 20 to 99 employees | 1,072 | Owner with an operations manager or estimator |
| 100 or more | 190 | Preconstruction, equipment, safety and fleet leaders |
The year sets the calendar. Site, concrete and road contractors plan and buy over the winter and are hard to reach from May to October; interior trades and remodelers work through the cold months. For the larger firms, our guide to finding decision makers covers who sits where.
Illustrative example. The company, rates and assumptions are invented; the counts are from CBP 2023.
Northstar Thaw Rentals (northstarthaw.example) rents ground heaters and heated enclosures for winter concrete and excavation. Its market is Minnesota's 994 site preparation and 563 poured concrete establishments, 1,557 in all. If 45% have five or more employees and work through the winter, that's about 700 accounts. If 12% rent each season, for eight weeks at $1,200 a week, that's 84 customers and $806,400 in rental revenue. The research that matters is which of the 700 are on MnDOT plan holders lists or have winter commercial jobs. Bebop builds that list from a plain-language description and writes a playbook for each account.
Where to find names
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| DLI license and registration lookup | iMS search plus CSV exports of residential contractors, registrations and licensed trades |
| MnDOT E-Plan Room | Plans and plan holders for advertised state projects |
| MnDOT post-letting results | Bids and low bidders for each letting |
| AGC of Minnesota member directory | Building and highway contractors in the first recognized AGC chapter, organized in 1919 |
| Minnesota Secretary of State business search | Entity status and registered office |
Next step: turn these files into a working list with the construction companies industry guide.
Sources
- County Business Patterns 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Building Permits Survey, annual state data 2025 and 2024, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Residential contractor licensing, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, accessed 30 October 2026
- Construction contractor registration, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, accessed 30 October 2026
- Frequently asked questions about contractor registrations, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, accessed 30 October 2026
- License and registration lookup (with CSV exports), Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, exports downloaded 30 October 2026
- Contractor Recovery Fund, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, accessed 30 October 2026
- Pre-Letting (How to Bid), Minnesota Department of Transportation, accessed 30 October 2026
- AGC of Minnesota, Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many construction companies are in Minnesota?
The US Census Bureau counted 17,568 construction establishments with paid employees in Minnesota in 2023, employing 144,692 people with $13.29 billion in payroll. That ranks 16th among states. Minnesota's own licensing files are larger, with 10,977 active residential building contractor licenses and 15,265 contractor registrations in October 2026, because they include owner-operators and out-of-state firms.
Do contractors need a license in Minnesota?
Residential building contractors, remodelers and roofers who contract with homeowners need a license from the Department of Labor and Industry, with an examined qualifying person and liability insurance. Contractors offering one specialty on residential jobs, and contractors doing commercial work without a residential license, register with DLI instead. Electricians and plumbers hold their own DLI licenses.
How do I look up a contractor license in Minnesota?
Use the Department of Labor and Industry's iMS search: choose Continue as Guest, then search license or registration holders by name or number. Check that the status is Issued and the license type matches the work. DLI also publishes free CSV exports of every residential contractor license and contractor registration, including any enforcement action.
How much do construction workers make in Minnesota?
Minnesota's construction establishments paid $13.29 billion to 144,692 employees in 2023, an average of $91,833 a year according to County Business Patterns. That's about $15,250 more than the average across all states and the third-highest of any state, after Alaska and Massachusetts. The figure is total payroll divided by March employment, so it includes overtime and management pay.
Does MnDOT require contractor prequalification?
No. MnDOT says it has no prequalification requirements for bidding construction projects. Bidders need a state SWIFT vendor number, a Bid Express subscription and digital ID, and a proposal guaranty of 5% of the bid. Downloading plans from MnDOT's E-Plan Room puts a firm on the free plan holders list for that project.