Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Structural Steel and Precast Contractor Revenue Benchmark
Contractors erecting structural steel and precast concrete, and placing reinforcing steel on building and infrastructure sites.
Average Structural Steel and Precast Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every structural steel and precast contractor with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.
≈$4,952,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
3,974
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $19.7 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $19.7 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 3,974 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $4,952,000 per employer establishment. Work is won as a subcontract to a general contractor, so revenue follows the building cycle rather than direct client demand.
Scope: Structural Steel and Precast Concrete Contractors, NAICS 238120. Classified separately in group 2381: 238110 Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors; 238130 Framing Contractors; 238140 Masonry Contractors, and 4 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 July 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group
Foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors, NAICS 2381, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
58.4%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 55.5 to 59.3 percent. This benchmark covers Foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors, NAICS 2381, as a whole, and this category accounts for 3,974 of the 104,198 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.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈27% |
Payroll share of receipts, Structural Steel and Precast Concrete Contractors, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 27.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll. Erection crews are certified and the work is sequenced tightly to a site schedule.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes cranes and rigging, which are a heavy commitment in this trade.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 19.6 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.02 |
Scale and ownership, Structural Steel and Precast Concrete Contractors, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 19.6 people, and the industry counted 1.0 employer establishments per firm.
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.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Structural Steel and Precast Contractor: how much one operator differs from another.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- Who fabricates the steel? Erecting steel and fabricating it are different businesses, and a contractor that only erects carries far less material value in its revenue.
- What lifting capacity does the firm own? Cranes and rigging are capital that sits outside payroll, and whether they are owned or hired changes the entire cost structure.
- How is sequencing risk shared? Steel cannot go up until foundations are ready, so a firm's schedule depends on trades it does not control.
- What certifications do the crews hold? Welding and rigging certifications limit who can bid, and maintaining them is a standing cost independent of workload.
- How is shop drawing approval sequenced? Fabrication generally proceeds against approved drawings or released packages, so delayed reviews can compress the remaining erection schedule.
- How is weather delay allocated? High wind can stop erection, and whether those days are excusable under the contract decides who pays for them.
- Is the work steel erection, precast concrete or reinforcing? All three sit in NAICS 238120. Precast erection depends on plant capacity and transport, and reinforcing work is priced by tonnage placed rather than by structure erected, so the average blends contractors with little in common.
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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.
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 office or yard with paid staff rather than each site or subcontract.