NAICS 332710 · California overview

Machine Shops & Precision Machining in Alameda County

Alameda County had 126 Machine Shops establishments in 2023, ranking 6 of 40 California counties and accounting for 5.7% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
126
Rank 6 of 40 counties
Employees
2,591
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$196M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.8
1,636,630 residents

More recent reading

BLS QCEW, 2026Q1

The figures above are County Business Patterns, which carries the size distribution but runs about two years behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes quarterly, so this is the same industry roughly 3 years later. The two count different universes, Census counts establishments with paid employees in the March pay period and BLS counts worksites covered by unemployment insurance during the quarter, so the numbers are not directly comparable and either can be the larger.

Establishments
132
2026Q1
Employment
2,188
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,595
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+3.1%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.71 location quotient. Machine Shops employment in Alameda County is about 1.7 times more concentrated than in the United States as a whole.

Computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not derived here. Above 1.0 means the industry is a larger share of local employment than of national employment.

Establishments by size

Employee-count distribution for Machine Shops in Alameda County. 36 of 126 establishments (29%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-45543.7%
5-93124.6%
10-191814.3%
20-491310.3%
100-24954.0%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 8.6% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
2020116n/a
2021117+1
2022130+13
2023126-4

How this market compares

Alameda County against every other county in California on the same measure. The median excludes places under 2,000 residents, where per-capita figures are arithmetically true but analytically useless.

Densely served0.8 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.4

Well above the state median for this industry. A crowded market: expect established competitors and price pressure, but also a deeper pool of businesses to buy.

Vs state median
+85%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#6
of 40 counties
Rank by density
#6
of 40 ranked
Since 2020
+9%
Change in establishments

Density compares machine shops & precision machining provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Alameda tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsAlamedaCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer43.7%47.0%-3.4%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target49.2%45.6%+3.6%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing28.6%27.7%+0.8%

What acquirers look at

Classic succession target: aging owner-machinists, real equipment collateral, and sticky aerospace or defense customer qualifications that take years to replicate.

Cities in Alameda

The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.

Other industries in Alameda

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2026Q1). Quarterly establishment counts and employment for employers covered by unemployment insurance. Retrieved 2026-09-08.