NAICS 332322, 332312 · California overview

Sheet Metal & Metal Fabrication in Stanislaus County

Stanislaus County had 20 Metal Fabrication establishments in 2023, ranking 10 of 27 California counties and accounting for 2.4% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
20
Rank 10 of 27 counties
Employees
361
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$22M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.4
557,719 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
18
2026Q1
Employment
201
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,426
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
0.0%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.51 location quotient. Metal Fabrication employment in Stanislaus County is about 1.5 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 Metal Fabrication in Stanislaus County. 6 of 20 establishments (30%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
5-9525.0%
10-19315.0%
20-49315.0%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 25.0% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202016n/a
2021160
202221+5
202320-1

How this market compares

Stanislaus 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 served0.4 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.2

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
+101%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#10
of 27 counties
Rank by density
#1
of 27 ranked
Since 2020
+25%
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

Stanislaus 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 establishmentsStanislausCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer0.0%26.7%-26.7%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target55.0%49.0%+6.0%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing30.0%37.6%-7.6%

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 Stanislaus

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

Other industries in Stanislaus

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.