SMBs.com
Industry research

The state of construction in 2026

The largest SMB vertical in America (3.4M firms), where the owner is in a truck and email is dead.

By the numbers · live data from our directory

Companies indexed
11,286
Countries
66+
Decision-makers
144,849
With contacts
11,178
Employee size distribution
1-4
350
5-9
207
10-19
214
20-49
210
50-99
7
100-249
3
500-999
1
Top countries
  • US9,097
  • CA543
  • GB542
  • IN332
  • AU221
  • FR147

The numbers

3.4M construction + trade businesses in the US - the largest SMB vertical. 5-year survival is ~38% - among the lowest of any sector. Quarterly hiring rate of 3.9%, layoff rate of 2.1%. The sector swings on housing starts + commercial buildout cycles; both bottomed in early 2025 and are recovering through 2026.

Reach is phone + text, not email

The owner is on a job site between 7am and 4pm. LinkedIn is dead in this segment. Phone calls work. Texts work better. Email works in the evening or weekend if at all. Foreman + estimator are gatekeepers, rarely buyers.

Software has to work in the truck

Whatever you sell, it has to work on a phone, in a truck, with one bar of cellular. Offline-first is a real differentiator. Setup that requires a desktop login is dead.

Sourced statistics for this vertical

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Buyer persona
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