Short answer
Vermont had 2,870 construction establishments with paid employees in 2023, employing 15,177 people with $1.06 billion in annual payroll, according to the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns. That's 0.35% of the US total and 48th among the states and DC. The average establishment has 5.3 employees, and 2,119 have fewer than five. Chittenden County has the most, 605. Since April 2023, contractors doing residential work worth $10,000 or more must register with the state.
- 2,870 construction establishments and 15,177 employees in Vermont in 2023, the fewest construction employees of any state.
- 73.8% of establishments have 1 to 4 employees; only 14 have 100 or more.
- Chittenden County holds 605 establishments and a third of the state's construction jobs.
- Residential jobs of $10,000 or more need a contractor registered with the Office of Professional Regulation, with $1 million per-occurrence liability insurance.
- Electricians and plumbers are licensed by the Division of Fire Safety, which publishes every active license as open data.
On this page
This report is for homeowners and developers choosing a builder in Vermont, contractors looking for subcontractors or a business to buy, and B2B sellers whose customers are Vermont builders and trades. It covers how many there are and where, what Vermont requires of them, how to check one, and where the names are published.
Vermont construction in one table
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), State of Vermont:
| Measure | Vermont, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Construction establishments | 2,870 |
| Employees (pay period including March 12) | 15,177 |
| Annual payroll | $1,058,982,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 5.3 |
| Average annual pay | $69,775 |
| Share of US construction establishments | 0.35% (of 814,557) |
| Rank by establishments (50 states and DC) | 48th |
Vermont has more construction establishments than Alaska and Delaware, but fewer construction employees than any other state. Across all states the same dataset averages 9.4 employees per establishment and $76,580 in pay (our calculation from the CBP state file), so Vermont's contractors are just over half the national size and pay about $6,800 less. Only Montana's establishments are smaller on average.
A state of small firms
| Employees per establishment | Establishments |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 2,119 |
| 5 to 9 | 412 |
| 10 to 19 | 205 |
| 20 to 49 | 96 |
| 50 to 99 | 24 |
| 100 to 249 | 13 |
| 250 to 499 | not published |
| 500 to 999 | not published |
| 1,000 or more | not published |
In broader bands: 2,736 establishments (95.3%) have 1 to 19 employees, 120 have 20 to 99, and 14 have 100 or more. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the three largest size classes for Vermont, to avoid disclosing individual employers; subtracting the published classes from the total leaves one establishment with 250 or more employees.
What CBP counts. Establishments are locations with paid employees, not companies, so a builder with an office in Williston and a yard in Barre counts twice. Self-employed contractors with no payroll aren't included, and in a state of one- and two-person crews that leaves out a lot of working contractors. The figures cover NAICS sector 23 only, which excludes architects, engineers and building material dealers.
What Vermont's contractors do
From the same CBP 2023 state file, by NAICS industry:
| Type of work (NAICS) | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Specialty trade contractors (238) | 1,815 | 9,413 |
| Electrical contractors (238210) | 324 | 2,025 |
| Plumbing, heating and air conditioning (238220) | 303 | 2,390 |
| Site preparation and excavation (238910) | 333 | 1,812 |
| Construction of buildings (236) | 949 | 4,402 |
| Residential remodelers (236118) | 522 | 1,589 |
| New single-family home builders (236115) | 322 | 1,333 |
| Commercial and institutional builders (236220) | 69 | 1,332 |
| Heavy and civil engineering (237) | 106 | 1,362 |
| Highway, street and bridge (237310) | 26 | 199 |
| Power and communication lines (237130) | 29 | 662 |
Site preparation contractors (excavation, septic, land clearing) outnumber electrical contractors, which fits a rural state where most new homes need a driveway and an on-site septic system. The 69 commercial builders average 19 employees each, against 3 for remodelers.
County by county
| County | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Chittenden | 605 | 5,193 |
| Windsor | 311 | 1,177 |
| Rutland | 284 | 1,397 |
| Washington | 249 | 1,391 |
| Windham | 226 | 1,050 |
| Addison | 220 | 1,031 |
| Franklin | 183 | 574 |
| Lamoille | 169 | 724 |
| Bennington | 163 | 638 |
| Orange | 143 | 797 |
| Orleans | 134 | 563 |
| Caledonia | 130 | 483 |
| Grand Isle | 30 | 87 |
| Essex | 20 | 63 |
Chittenden County, around Burlington, has 21% of establishments but 34% of construction jobs, with 8.6 employees per establishment. Windsor County's 311 average 3.8. Three more establishments are coded statewide with no county.
What Vermont requires of contractors
| Who | Requirement | Regulator |
|---|---|---|
| Residential contractors on jobs of $10,000 or more (labor and materials), on buildings of up to four units | Registration since 1 April 2023; $75 for an individual or $250 for a business; liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate | Office of Professional Regulation (OPR), Secretary of State |
| Commercial contractors | No state registration for commercial work; they must register if they take a residential job of $10,000 or more | None at state level |
| Electricians, plumbers, gas and oil burner installers, elevator, sprinkler and fire alarm trades | State licenses | Division of Fire Safety, Department of Public Safety |
| Contractors bidding state highway work | Annual prequalification, plus a contract-specific application for each project a prime bids | Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) |
Registration covers building, renovating, repairing, painting, paving, roofing, weatherization, and heating, plumbing, solar, electrical, water or wastewater work. Licensed trades within their license, engineers, architects and employees of a registered business are exempt. A business name on a contract must be registered with both the Secretary of State and OPR.
The Division of Fire Safety publishes every active license it issues on the state's open data portal. On 30 October 2026 the list held 2,410 master electricians, 1,655 journeyman electricians, 1,277 master plumbers and 507 journeyman plumbers, including license holders based in neighboring states.
How to check a Vermont contractor
- Look up the registration. For any home project of $10,000 or more, search OPR's Find a Professional lookup for the residential contractor registration, and confirm the business name matches the one on your contract.
- Check the trade licenses. The electrician or plumber doing the work should appear on the Division of Fire Safety master list with an unexpired license at the right level (master, journeyman or special).
- Confirm the business entity is active in the Secretary of State's business search.
- Ask for the certificate of insurance and call the insurer. OPR requires $1 million per occurrence; a commercial job may need more.
- Check permits and Act 250. Larger projects may need an Act 250 land use permit. Search the Act 250 database by town or participant name to see a builder's past permitted projects.
Public projects: VTrans and Act 250
VTrans has prequalified highway contractors since 1951. Each year a contractor files an experience questionnaire and a CPA-prepared financial statement, and the Prequalification Committee assigns a maximum dollar capacity rating and work classifications. Primes also file a contract-specific application (form CA-82) for each proposal; subcontractors don't. The bid results pages show who wins state work.
Act 250, Vermont's land use law since 1970, is administered by the Land Use Review Board. Its database is searchable by town, participant, description and status: a list of larger developments, and the developers behind them, before construction starts.
No SEC-registered listed construction company has its business address in Vermont, so there are no public revenue figures to rank local contractors by.
Selling to Vermont contractors
| Size band | Establishments | Who usually decides |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 19 employees | 2,736 | The owner, who also estimates, buys and often works on site |
| 20 to 99 employees | 120 | Owner with a project manager or office manager |
| 100 or more | 14 | Operations, purchasing, safety and equipment managers |
With 95% of the market under 20 employees, you're selling to an owner who answers the phone between jobs. Time messages to the season: site contractors plan in late winter before the ground thaws, and heating trades are busiest from October. Our guide to selling to small businesses covers the owner-led buying pattern in more detail.
Illustrative example. The company and its assumptions are invented; the counts are from CBP 2023 and the Division of Fire Safety list.
Ridgeline Heat Supply (ridgelineheat.example) distributes cold-climate heat pumps through installers. Its market is Vermont's 303 plumbing and HVAC establishments and some of its 324 electrical contractors. If 40% of the plumbing and HVAC firms install heating equipment and have at least one employee to spare for training, that's about 121 accounts. Signing a quarter of them, 30 dealers, at 35 installs a year each gives 1,050 units. The useful research is which installers are already registered residential contractors and which serve the counties where it has no dealer yet. Bebop builds that list from a plain-language description and writes a short brief on each account.
Where to find names
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| OPR Find a Professional | Registered residential contractors, by individual or business |
| Division of Fire Safety license master list | Every active electrical, plumbing, gas, oil burner and fire protection license, with city and expiry date |
| Act 250 database | Land use permit applications by town, participant and status |
| VTrans construction contracting | Prequalification, bid opportunities and award results |
| AGC/VT member directory | General contractors and associate members of the state's AGC chapter, active since 1934 |
| Vermont Builders and Remodelers Association | Member builders and remodelers, filterable by county and trade |
Next step: turn these segments into a list with the construction companies industry guide.
Sources
- County Business Patterns 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Residential Contractor FAQs, Vermont Secretary of State, Office of Professional Regulation, accessed 30 October 2026
- Residential Contractors, Vermont Secretary of State, Office of Professional Regulation, accessed 30 October 2026
- Licensing, Vermont Division of Fire Safety, accessed 30 October 2026
- DFS Licensing MasterList, Vermont Division of Fire Safety via Vermont Open Data, updated 29 October 2026, accessed 30 October 2026
- Policies and Procedures for Prequalification (Revision 7), Vermont Agency of Transportation, effective 15 July 2026
- Design, Bid, Build (Traditional Bid Process) resources, Vermont Agency of Transportation, accessed 30 October 2026
- Act 250 Land Use Review Board, State of Vermont, accessed 30 October 2026
- AGC/VT, Associated General Contractors of Vermont, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many construction companies are there in Vermont?
The US Census Bureau counted 2,870 construction establishments with paid employees in Vermont in 2023, employing 15,177 people with $1.06 billion in payroll. That ranks 48th among the states and DC. Establishments are locations rather than companies, and self-employed contractors with no employees aren't counted, so the number of working contractors is higher than this figure.
Do contractors need a license in Vermont?
Vermont has no general contractor license, but since April 2023 anyone doing residential construction worth $10,000 or more, counting labor and materials, must register with the Office of Professional Regulation and carry $1 million per occurrence in liability insurance. Electricians and plumbers are licensed separately by the Division of Fire Safety. Commercial work needs no state registration.
How do I check if a Vermont contractor is registered?
Search the Office of Professional Regulation's Find a Professional lookup for the contractor's residential contractor registration, and make sure the business name matches your contract. For electrical or plumbing work, check the Division of Fire Safety's master list of active licenses on data.vermont.gov. The Secretary of State's business search confirms the company itself is active.
Which Vermont county has the most construction companies?
Chittenden County, around Burlington, had 605 construction establishments and 5,193 employees in 2023, about a third of the state's construction jobs. Windsor County was second with 311 establishments, followed by Rutland (284), Washington (249) and Windham (226). Chittenden's contractors are also the largest on average, with 8.6 employees each.
How big are construction companies in Vermont?
Mostly very small. Of Vermont's 2,870 construction establishments in 2023, 2,119 had fewer than five employees and 2,736 had fewer than 20. Only 14 had 100 or more. The average was 5.3 employees per establishment, just over half the figure across all states and the second-lowest of any state after Montana.