Commercial and institutional building construction — NAICS 236220 industry report

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

1–43,11247%

5–91,32720%

10–1997315%

20–4980912%

50–992924%

100–199861%

200–499441%

500+140%

Of 6,657 Canadian establishments with employees, 67% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario2,40336%

Quebec1,27119%

British Columbia1,06316%

Alberta98615%

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 2362 Non-residential building construction covers it.

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 2362

Construction Management SoftwareOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent Procore

The most-cited vertical SaaS success story, and therefore the most thoroughly contested. Procore plus Autodesk have covered general contractor workflow end to end; the remaining gaps sit in specialty-trade workflows, which is where 238220 and 238160 lead instead.

NAICS 23626 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

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.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 2362 Non-residential building construction

Construction Management SoftwareOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent Procore

The most-cited vertical SaaS success story, and therefore the most thoroughly contested. Procore plus Autodesk have covered general contractor workflow end to end; the remaining gaps sit in specialty-trade workflows, which is where 238220 and 238160 lead instead.

NAICS 23626 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

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

Concrete finishers, tilesetters and plasterers One industry 94.3%

Bricklayers and insulators One industry 87.5%

Trades helpers and labourers One industry 80.7%

Carpenters and cabinetmakers One industry 79.9%

Plumbers, pipefitters and gas fitters One industry 79.8%

Roofers, glaziers, painters, decorators and floor covering installers One industry 73.7%

Contractors and supervisors, technical industrial, electrical and construction trades and related workers One industry 70.5%

Technical electrical trades and electrical power line and telecommunications workers Mostly one sector 60%

Managers in construction and facility operation and maintenance Mostly one sector 57.7%

Crane operators and water well drillers Mostly one sector 48.9%

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

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 24.7%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 14.4%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 12.7%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 10.4%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 7.4%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 7.4%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 6.7%

Other technical trades Across the economy 6.1%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 5.6%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 4.3%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →