NAICS 541330 · California overview
Engineering Services in Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County had 125 Engineering establishments in 2023, ranking 17 of 48 California counties and accounting for 1.4% of the statewide total.
- Establishments (2023)
- 125
- Rank 17 of 48 counties
- Employees
- 1,886
- Mid-March employment
- Annual payroll
- $211M
- All establishments
- Per 10k residents
- 2.8
- 442,065 residents
More recent reading
BLS QCEW, 2026Q1The 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
- 131
- 2026Q1
- Employment
- 2,378
- Quarter-end level
- Average weekly wage
- $2,702
- Per covered worker
- Quarterly trend
- +2.3%
- 2025Q2 to 2026Q1
1.44 location quotient. Engineering employment in Santa Barbara County is about 1.4 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 Engineering in Santa Barbara County. 34 of 125 establishments (27%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.
| Employees | Establishments | Share | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 61 | 48.8% | |
| 5-9 | 29 | 23.2% | |
| 10-19 | 12 | 9.6% | |
| 20-49 | 14 | 11.2% | |
| 50-99 | 5 | 4.0% | |
| 100-249 | 3 | 2.4% |
Establishment trend
Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 1.6% since 2020.
| Year | Establishments | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 127 | n/a |
| 2021 | 133 | +6 |
| 2022 | 128 | -5 |
| 2023 | 125 | -3 |
How this market compares
Santa Barbara 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.
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
- +53%
- Businesses per resident
- Rank by count
- #17
- of 48 counties
- Rank by density
- #13
- of 48 ranked
- Since 2020
- -2%
- Change in establishments
Density compares engineering services provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.
Business size mix
Santa Barbara 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 establishments | Santa Barbara | California | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer | 48.8% | 57.3% | -8.5% |
| 5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target | 44.0% | 36.2% | +7.8% |
| 10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing | 27.2% | 26.6% | +0.6% |
What acquirers look at
Value sits in licensed professional engineers and public-agency prequalification, both of which are people-dependent. Retention packages are mandatory.
Cities in Santa Barbara
The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.
Other industries in Santa Barbara
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
- 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.