California has 213,885 contractors with a Clear CSLB license, 21.2% of them in Los Angeles County

This site's California directory lists 213,885 businesses from the Contractors State License Board's License Master file. It includes every license with a status of Clear, an unexpired date and a California address, in the A, B, B-2 or C classifications. Limited specialty (C-61) and certification-only records are not included.

By license

A firm can hold several classifications. For the directory, any firm with an A or B license is counted as a general contractor:

• General Engineering (A) firms: 13,422
• General Building (B), without an A: 93,785
• Residential Remodeling (B-2) only: 1,536
• Specialty (C) only: 105,142

Counting every classification a firm holds, 99,760 hold a B license and 26,744 hold Electrical (C-10). Business and Professions Code sections 7056 and 7057 define the A and B classes; section 7058 covers the C specialties.

Many firms hold more than one classification: 36,427 of the 213,885 list two or more of the A, B, B-2 and C classes this directory tracks. A General Engineering firm that also holds C-12 and C-8, for example, appears once, as a general contractor, with all three classes on its listing.

By county

The 10 counties with the most firms:

• Los Angeles County: 45,450
• San Diego County: 19,490
• Orange County: 18,156
• Riverside County: 14,807
• San Bernardino County: 10,025
• Santa Clara County: 8,903
• Sacramento County: 8,902
• Alameda County: 6,934
• Contra Costa County: 6,898
• Ventura County: 5,978

Los Angeles County alone accounts for 21.2% of the directory. The four Southern California counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and Riverside together account for 45.8%.

By Caltrans district

Grouped by the Caltrans district that covers each county:

• District 7 (Los Angeles): 51,428
• District 4 (Oakland): 41,761
• District 8 (San Bernardino): 24,832
• District 3 (Marysville): 21,286
• District 11 (San Diego): 19,870
• District 12 (Irvine): 18,156
• District 5 (San Luis Obispo): 11,868
• District 6 (Fresno): 9,884
• District 10 (Stockton): 8,834
• District 2 (Redding): 3,012
• District 1 (Eureka): 2,579
• District 9 (Bishop): 375

District 9 (Bishop), which this site maps to Inyo and Mono counties, has the fewest firms. Kern County is split between Caltrans districts; this site counts all of it in District 6.

The most common specialties

Counting every C classification held by firms in the directory, the most common are:

• C-10 (Electrical): 26,744
• C-36 (Plumbing): 16,896
• C-33 (Painting and Decorating): 15,102
• C-27 (Landscaping): 11,921
• C-20 (Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning): 11,229
• C-15 (Flooring and Floor Covering): 6,569
• C-54 (Ceramic and Mosaic Tile): 5,940
• C-39 (Roofing): 5,341
• C-8 (Concrete): 5,177

Earthwork and Paving (C-12), the specialty most often listed on Caltrans projects after the A license, is held by 2,309 firms.

What it means

The directory counts licensed businesses, not active bidders: many firms work only on private jobs, and some licenses are held by sole owners. For Caltrans work, the General Engineering license is the one that matters most: it appeared on 76 of the 89 projects on Caltrans' Contracts Out for Bid page on Oct. 31. That makes the 13,422 A-licensed firms the main pool of prime bidders, with C-12, C-8 and C-10 firms as the most common subcontractors.

Every firm in the directory has a basic listing. Contractors can claim theirs free and add trades, service areas and contacts in GC Finder or Sub Finder. The data note on each listing links the CSLB record.

Who needs a license

California requires a CSLB license for construction work unless an exemption applies. The best known is in Business and Professions Code section 7048: work whose total price, labor and materials included, is under $1,000 and that needs no building permit. Anyone bidding above that line needs the right classification. Public works contractors also need registration with the Department of Industrial Relations.

See our CSLB license classifications guide for what each class allows.