Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Sheet Metal Fabrication Shop Revenue Benchmark

A sheet metal fabrication shop cuts, bends, punches and welds sheet steel, aluminum and stainless into ductwork, enclosures, panels, brackets and custom parts for contractors, manufacturers and builders. Laser and press brake capacity, metal prices and the construction and industrial customers a shop serves shape a fabrication business that sells precision by the pound.

NAICS 332322, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average Sheet Metal Fabrication Shop Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every sheet metal work manufacturer with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of shops gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$8,253,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

4,788

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $39.5 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $39.5 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,788 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $8,253,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Sheet Metal Work Manufacturing, NAICS 332322. The category covers manufacturers of sheet metal work such as ductwork, enclosures, flashing and custom fabrications. Contractors installing ductwork and structural steel fabricators are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 3323: 332311 Prefabricated Metal Building and Component Manufacturing; 332312 Fabricated Structural Metal Manufacturing; 332313 Plate Work Manufacturing, and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort

Architectural and Structural Metals Manufacturing, NAICS 3323, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

72.2%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation: 83.6 percent at 1 year, 77.6 percent at 2 years, 76.9 percent at 3 years, 74.2 percent at 4 years, 72.2 percent at 5 years. 597 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 72.2 to 92.4 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count1 year: 83.6 percent of the starting count2 years: 77.6 percent of the starting count3 years: 76.9 percent of the starting count4 years: 74.2 percent of the starting count5 years: 72.2 percent of the starting count83.677.676.974.272.2Start1 year2 years3 years4 years5 years597 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 72 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 72.2 to 92.4 percent. This benchmark covers Architectural and Structural Metals Manufacturing, NAICS 3323, as a whole, and this category accounts for 4,788 of the 14,826 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈20%

Payroll share of receipts, Sheet Metal Work Manufacturing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 20.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share because sheet metal and consumables carry a large part of every job while fabricators, welders and machine operators supply the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes metal, consumables, powder coating and outside services, which together carry much of what a shop spends on an order.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment27.6
Employer establishments per firm1.08

Scale and ownership, Sheet Metal Work Manufacturing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 27.6 people, and the industry averaged 1.1 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could cover cutting, forming and welding stations and a small office.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Sheet Metal Fabrication Shop: what metal prices, machine hours and customers do to the average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

  • HVAC ductwork or industrial fabrication? Shops making ductwork for mechanical contractors follow the construction cycle, while shops fabricating enclosures and parts for manufacturers follow industrial orders. The category counts both, and the customer base sets a shop's rhythm.
  • How busy are the machines? Lasers, turret punches and press brakes carry financing and maintenance whether they run or not, so utilization decides whether the investment pays. That figure sits at the center of shop economics and outside a receipts total.
  • What does steel cost this year? Sheet steel, aluminum and stainless prices move with markets and tariffs between the quote and the cut, and that gap lands on the shop unless the quote allowed for it.
  • Who supplies the drawings? Some customers send finished drawings, while others need design and engineering from the shop, which adds skilled hours before any metal is cut. The share of design work changes both payroll and pricing.
  • Does the shop install? Ductwork and architectural metal often need site installation, which brings crews, vehicles and liability. Shops that install and shops that only fabricate report different revenue and payroll for similar work.
  • How concentrated are the customers? A fabricator serving a few large contractors or manufacturers can lose a large share of volume with one contract, while a shop with many small accounts spends more on quoting. Concentration is a central risk the average cannot show.

Sources and Methodology

Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.

The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each fabrication shop with paid staff. Contractors installing ductwork and structural steel fabricators are counted in separate categories.