Census CBP 2023 · NAICS 238350
How many finish carpentry contractors are there in the US?
Trim, cabinetry installation, doors and mouldings, counted as its own federal industry.
- With employees32,219establishments
- Without employeesNot publishedat this code
- Employees177,042in the employer half
- Annual payroll$10.5 billionemployer half
The trade with the most photogenic before and after on any renovation job, and a payroll of over ten billion dollars a year across 32,219 firms.
Businesses with staff, and businesses without
These are two different federal surveys covering two different universes, and adding them together without saying so is the most common way this data gets misquoted. They are kept separate here on purpose.
| Measure | Employer | Nonemployer |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 32,219 | Not published |
| People employed | 177,042 | None, by definition |
| Average staff each | 5.5 | Zero |
| Annual payroll | $10.5 billion | Not published |
| Source | Census CBP 2023 | See the note below |
As with painting, the nonemployer figure is only published at NAICS 2383, Building Finishing Contractors, 669,136 businesses across all the finishing trades combined.
finish carpentry contractors with employees are 0.385 per cent of all 8,361,342 US establishments with employees
The five states with the most finish carpentry contractors
| State | Establishments with employees |
|---|---|
| Florida | 4,085 |
| California | 2,784 |
| New York | 2,675 |
| Texas | 1,423 |
| Illinois | 1,278 |
Employer establishments only. The nonemployer side is not published by state at this level of detail, and in most of these trades it is the larger half, so treat this table as a ranking rather than a census of the trade.
Finish Carpentry Contractors
Counted here
Finish carpentry, trim and moulding installation, cabinet and countertop installation, door and window installation.
Counted somewhere else
Framing carpentry, which is 238130, and cabinet manufacturing.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, 2023, United States, NAICS 238350 Finish Carpentry Contractors. Accessed 2026-08-01.
Counts establishments with at least one paid employee, measured in the week of 12 March 2023. A business with no employees is counted by Nonemployer Statistics instead, not here.
What these workers are paid
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How many finish carpentry contractors are there in the US?
- Census County Business Patterns counted 32,219 finish carpentry contractors with at least one paid employee in 2023, employing 177,042 people on a payroll of $10.5 billion. Census does not publish a nonemployer count at this level of detail, so the figure above covers businesses with staff only. NAICS code 238350.
- Why are there two different numbers?
- Because they measure two different universes. County Business Patterns counts establishments with at least one paid employee. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no employees and at least a thousand dollars of annual receipts. Together they cover every US business, and adding them without saying so would be misleading, so this page keeps them apart.
- What else is inside this code?
- Finish carpentry, trim and moulding installation, cabinet and countertop installation, door and window installation. What it excludes: framing carpentry, which is 238130, and cabinet manufacturing.
- How current is this?
- 2023 is the most recent County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics release published by the Census Bureau. Both were fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.