NAICS 332322, 332312 · California overview

Sheet Metal & Metal Fabrication in Riverside County

Riverside County had 63 Metal Fabrication establishments in 2023, ranking 4 of 27 California counties and accounting for 7.4% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
63
Rank 4 of 27 counties
Employees
1,846
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$112M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.2
2,544,916 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
59
2026Q1
Employment
1,171
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,404
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+9.3%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.11 location quotient. Metal Fabrication is about as concentrated in Riverside County as it is nationally.

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 Metal Fabrication in Riverside County. 34 of 63 establishments (54%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-41320.6%
5-91422.2%
10-191117.5%
20-491117.5%
50-99812.7%
100-24946.3%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 16.7% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202054n/a
2021540
202261+7
202363+2

How this market compares

Riverside 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.

Above average0.2 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.2

More provision than the typical California market of this size. Usually a sign of genuine local demand rather than oversupply.

Vs state median
+39%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#4
of 27 counties
Rank by density
#6
of 27 ranked
Since 2020
+17%
Change in establishments

Density compares sheet metal & metal fabrication provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Riverside is more consolidated than California as a whole: fewer micro-operators and a larger share of businesses with real headcount. Fewer targets, but the ones that exist are more likely to be financeable.

Share of establishmentsRiversideCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer20.6%26.7%-6.0%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target57.1%49.0%+8.1%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing54.0%37.6%+16.4%

What acquirers look at

Facility, cranes and equipment give these deals hard asset backing. Customer concentration with a single general contractor is the common failure mode.

Cities in Riverside

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

Other industries in Riverside

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.