NAICS 23611Industry · 5-digitregional market

Residential building construction

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in the construction or remodelling and renovation of single-family and multi-family residential buildings. Included in this industry are residential housing general contractors, operative builders and remodellers of residential structures, residential project construction management firms, and residential design-build firms. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA
39,641
with employees · summed from 6-digit industries
Under 10 employeesA
88%
most common size: 1–4
Establishments · USA
209,456
Employment · USA
882,519
4.2 per establishment
Payroll · USA
$60.6B
$69k per employee
01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–427,37969%
5–97,45219%
10–193,1338%
20–491,3253%
50–992441%
100–199810%
200–499220%
500+50%

Of 39,641 Canadian establishments with employees, 88% have fewer than ten — an industry of very small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario13,35134%
Quebec10,64727%
British Columbia6,96118%
Alberta3,85510%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA
Construction, US · opened 2020
83.2%
1 year
68.2%
3 years
56.5%
5 years
42.6%
10 years
opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 236, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

regional competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 236 Construction of buildings

Low barriers and thin margins. Working capital and bonding capacity, not equipment, decide how large a builder can get, and one bad job can erase several good years.

Who sets the price
Owners and developers through tender; residential builders take the housing market's price.
The software it runs on
Estimating, project management, scheduling and job costing.
03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 2361 Residential building construction covers it.

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Estimating, project management, scheduling and job costing.

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Construction, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 88% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 23611. Each has a base report of its own.

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
236110Residential building construction39,641screened at 2361