Plumbing & HVAC contractors · Orange County

About this data

Restoration trades by county: establishments, jobs and wages Observed

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) (county files, private employers; industry codes electricians 23821, plumbing & hvac 23822, drywall & insulation 23831, painters 23832, roofers 23816, remediation & abatement 562910, residential builders 2361)

Covers through Q1 2026. Retrieved Oct 1, 2026.

Notes (7)

• Private-sector employers only. Counts are by where the business is located, not where the work is done.
• Jobs are the average of the quarter's three monthly payroll counts. Self-employed workers and owners without employees are not counted.
• Average weekly wage is total quarterly pay divided by 13 weeks and by average jobs, in current dollars (not adjusted for inflation).
• BLS publishes county trade data at the 5-digit industry level (4-digit for residential building); remediation is the one 6-digit industry it publishes by county.
• BLS revises the most recent quarters; this data is rebuilt from the latest release.
• There is no industry code for fire, water and mold restoration contractors: they are counted among remodelers, other specialty trades, building services and remediation. These counts describe the trades restoration work depends on, not restoration firms themselves.
• BLS withholds jobs and wages to protect employer confidentiality for Riverside remediation & abatement in 2019Q1–2020Q2 and 2020Q4; the establishment count is still shown.

Materials prices: producer price indexes for restoration trades Observed

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (commodity data) (series WPU10260314, WPU081, WPU137, WPU0621, WPU1054, WPU1361, WPUIP2321001, not seasonally adjusted)

Covers through August 2026. Retrieved Oct 1, 2026.

Notes (5)

• Producer prices are what manufacturers receive at the factory or mill, not what a contractor pays at the supply house: distributor markups, freight and local taxes are not included.
• These are national U.S. indexes. There is no Southern California breakdown.
• Each index has its own base period, so compare materials by percent change, not by index level.
• The latest four months are preliminary and BLS may revise them.
• Copper wire & cable: BLS published no value for 2020-07, so that month and the one-year change twelve months later are left out.

30-year fixed mortgage rate Observed

Freddie Mac, 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States, via FRED (weekly, percent)

Covers through Oct 1, 2026. Retrieved Oct 1, 2026.

Notes (1)

• National average rate for well-qualified borrowers, published weekly on Thursdays. It says nothing about any one loan.

New housing units permitted by county Observed

U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (county files) (annual, monthly and year-to-date county files, 2015 to 2026)

Covers through August 2026. Retrieved Oct 1, 2026.

Notes (6)

• Counts new privately owned housing units authorized by building permits. Repairs, remodels and additions are not counted. A home rebuilt from the ground up (for example after a fire) is counted as a new unit when its permit is issued. A permit is not a start or a completion.
• Year-to-year comparisons use the Census annual files, which include permit offices that report once a year and late or corrected reports (e.g. Riverside 2025: 6,399 single-family units in the annual file vs 6,021 summed from the monthly files).
• 'So far this year' uses the Census year-to-date files, which also include late and corrected reports.
• Monthly figures are Census estimates for each county, not seasonally adjusted.
• Monthly figures start later for some counties: Riverside: monthly from 2022-01; Ventura: monthly from 2022-01.
• Annual data runs through 2025; 2026 is covered by monthly and year-to-date figures only.