NAICS 541330 · California overview

Engineering Services in Shasta County

Shasta County had 43 Engineering establishments in 2023, ranking 27 of 48 California counties and accounting for 0.5% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
43
Rank 27 of 48 counties
Employees
364
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$39M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
2.4
181,648 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
41
2026Q1
Employment
434
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$2,056
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+2.5%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.77 location quotient. Engineering employment in Shasta County is about 1.3 times less 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 Shasta County. 12 of 43 establishments (28%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-42762.8%
5-937.0%
10-19614.0%
20-49614.0%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 10.3% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202039n/a
202140+1
202241+1
202343+2

How this market compares

Shasta 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 average2.4 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 1.9

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

Vs state median
+28%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#27
of 48 counties
Rank by density
#18
of 48 ranked
Since 2020
+10%
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

Shasta is more fragmented than California as a whole: a larger share of very small operators. Fragmented markets are where roll-ups are assembled, and where an owner nearing retirement has no obvious internal buyer.

Share of establishmentsShastaCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer62.8%57.3%+5.5%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target34.9%36.2%-1.3%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing27.9%26.6%+1.3%

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 Shasta

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

Other industries in Shasta

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.