Construction companies in NYC: 15,367 contractors, who pulls the permits and how to check one

This report is for anyone looking for construction companies in New York City: owners and co-op boards hiring a contractor, developers and tenants comparing builders, job seekers, and B2B sellers whose customers are contractors. It covers the Census count by borough and trade, the city's own permit and license records, how to vet a firm, and how to prospect them.

NYC construction by the numbers

From the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), for the five counties that make up New York City (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond):

New York State as a whole had 51,349 construction establishments and 371,275 employees in the same CBP release, so the city holds 29.9% of the state's establishments and 35.9% of its construction jobs. Average pay in the city is about $11,300 above the national construction average of $76,580.

That's 14,065 establishments with 1 to 19 employees (91.5%), 1,096 with 20 to 99 and 206 with 100 or more. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the three largest size classes for the city; the 206 is the total less the smaller bands, which also means 47 establishments have 250 or more employees.

Borough by borough

Queens and Brooklyn hold 70% of the city's construction establishments, mostly small trade and renovation firms. Manhattan has 12% of the establishments but 25.7% of the jobs, because that's where the large general contractors and construction managers keep their offices.

What kinds of contractors work in the city

Two things stand out. Residential remodelers are 30.6% of all construction establishments in the city, a sign of how much of the work is renovation of existing housing. And heavy civil firms are only 1.5%: much of the region's road, tunnel and utility work is done by contractors based outside the five boroughs.

What CBP counts: establishments (single locations) with paid employees in NAICS 23, not companies, so a firm with a Long Island City yard and a Midtown office counts twice. Self-employed contractors with no payroll are left out, and employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023. Contractors based in New Jersey, Westchester or Long Island that work in the city are counted where they're based.

Who is pulling the permits

The Department of Buildings publishes every approved DOB NOW: Build permit as open data, with the permittee's business name, license type and the estimated job cost. Our count of permits issued in calendar 2025:

Registered general contractors held 121,127 of them, under about 7,600 business names, and master plumbers held 24,156. The dataset excludes electrical, elevator and limited alteration permits, which DOB publishes separately. Manhattan gets 36% of the permits with 12% of the establishments: contractors from every borough work there.

The general contractors with the most jobs that received an initial general construction permit in 2025, names as recorded in DOB NOW (which cuts names at 25 characters):

Across all 2025 initial general construction permits, 26,899 permits went to 5,796 business names. A job count measures activity, not size: an office fit-out and a 40-story tower each count once. Filter the dataset by permittee, work type or estimated cost to find the firms doing the kind of work you need.

Licenses and registrations to check

In New York City, the license to look for depends on the work. Four records cover most contractors:

How to shortlist and vet a contractor in NYC

1. Match the trade and size to the job. A brownstone gut renovation, a retail fit-out and a ground-up building are different markets; use the trade table above and the permit data to find firms that do yours.
2. Look up its permits. Search DOB NOW data for the firm's business name: how many jobs like yours, in which borough, how recent and at what estimated cost.
3. Confirm the license. DOB registration or trade license for building work; a DCWP home improvement license for residential renovation. An expired or suspended status is a stop sign: DCWP lists 5,429 expired home improvement licenses alongside the 13,385 active ones.
4. Get insurance certificates and references for two or three similar jobs in the last two years, and call the building managers, not only the owners.
5. Compare bids on the same scope, including who files with DOB, who provides site safety, and how change orders are priced.

Public companies headquartered in NYC

The SEC's company file lists one listed construction company with a business address in the five boroughs, Cemtrex (Nasdaq: CETX), at a Brooklyn address. Its latest 10-K, for the year to September 30, 2025, gives its principal executive offices as Hauppauge on Long Island and reports $76.5 million in revenue from security technology (Vicon) and industrial rigging and equipment installation. So no listed construction contractor has its head office in the city, and the large builders based here don't publish SEC filings you can rank them by.

Selling to NYC construction companies

Segment by what the permit data says a firm does: interior fit-out general contractors (heavy in Manhattan), residential remodelers (Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island), and trades such as plumbing and fire suppression, whose licensed principals appear by name in DOB records. A new permit at a named address is the best reason to reach out. Our guide to finding decision makers covers who to contact once you have the company.

Illustrative example. The company and its assumptions are invented; the counts are from CBP and DOB NOW.

Hudson Floorworks (hudsonfloor.example) distributes commercial flooring and wants interior fit-out contractors. It pulls 2025 general construction permits in Manhattan from DOB NOW, keeps general contractors with 20 or more jobs, and finds about 150 firms. If a third of them buy flooring through a distributor and each orders $180,000 a year, winning 10% of that group is about 5 accounts and $900,000 in annual sales. The research step that matters is which of the 150 have permits issued in the last 60 days. Bebop finds contractors that match a description like this and builds a playbook for each one.

Sources for names

Upstate markets are different: see the reports on Buffalo and Rochester, and across the Hudson, New Jersey.

Next step: build the list itself with the construction companies industry guide.