NAICS 339950 · California overview

Sign Manufacturing & Installation in San Joaquin County

San Joaquin County had 11 Sign Shops establishments in 2023, ranking 13 of 31 California counties and accounting for 1.8% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
11
Rank 13 of 31 counties
Employees
96
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$3.9M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.1
823,815 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
14
2026Q1
Employment
145
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$686
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
0.0%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.03 location quotient. Sign Shops is about as concentrated in San Joaquin 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 Sign Shops in San Joaquin County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4436.4%
5-9436.4%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 8.3% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202012n/a
2021120
202211-1
2023110

How this market compares

San Joaquin 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.

Typical0.1 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.1

Close to the state median for this industry. Provision is roughly what the population would predict.

Vs state median
-8%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#13
of 31 counties
Rank by density
#20
of 31 ranked
Since 2020
-8%
Change in establishments

Density compares sign manufacturing & installation provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

San Joaquin 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 establishmentsSan JoaquinCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer36.4%54.4%-18.1%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target36.4%32.6%+3.8%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%16.0%-16.0%

What acquirers look at

Permitting expertise and installation equipment create a real moat locally. Recurring maintenance on illuminated signage is an underrated revenue stream.

Cities in San Joaquin

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

Other industries in San Joaquin

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.