Founder Data ReportIn Retail, Nearly One Workplace in Three Belongs to a Company With 500 or More Employees. In Construction It Is One in 65.
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Whether the business across the street is independent or a branch of something much larger is not a national question. It is an industry question, and the answer varies by a factor of 41.
Across all industries, 16.7% of American employer workplaces belong to a firm with 500 or more employees. That national figure hides an enormous spread. In retail trade the share is 31.3% — nearly one workplace in three. In construction it is 1.5%, about one in 65. Four sectors are more than a third large-firm owned: management of companies, utilities, information, and finance and insurance. Retail is fifth of nineteen, but it is the most concentrated of the six largest sectors, and it holds more workplaces than any other.
- Nationally, 16.7% of employer workplaces belong to firms with 500+ employees.
- Retail trade: 31.3%. Construction: 1.5%. A 20.4-fold gap.
- Highest of nineteen sectors: management of companies at 62.8%, which is corporate head offices by definition.
- Lowest: construction at 1.5% — a 41-fold spread top to bottom.
- Four sectors sit above one third; six sit below ten percent.
- Locations per firm runs from 3.02 in utilities to 1.02 in construction.
- Sector shares are shares of that sector’s workplaces, not of its revenue or employment.
The national average describes no industry in particular
Nationally, firms with 500 or more employees own 16.7% of American workplaces. Split that by industry and the figure ranges from 1.5% to 62.8% — a 41-fold spread. The average is the midpoint of two very different economies, and which one you are working in decides what your competition looks like.
The top of the list needs reading carefully. Management of companies at 62.8% is the NAICS sector for holding companies and corporate head offices, so it is large-firm owned almost by definition — an establishment in it exists because a big company put an office there. Utilities at 58.7% is the same story for a different reason: the industry is built out of regional monopolies. The first genuinely competitive sectors on the list are information at 40.2% and finance and insurance at 38.8%.
All nineteen NAICS sectors, ranked. Bars are the share of that sector’s establishments, not of its employment or revenue. Sectors below the 16.7% national figure are drawn in slate. ‘Forestry, fishing and agricultural support’ is NAICS 11, which in this dataset covers support services rather than farming — crop and animal production are outside it. Establishments the Census Bureau could not classify are excluded.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, national file us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt, employer firms and their establishments, retrieved from the Census static dataset release on September 14, 2026.
Two sectors of the same size at opposite ends of the list
Retail trade holds more workplaces than any other sector — 1,045,890 of them — and 31.3% belong to a firm with 500 or more employees. Construction holds 800,651 and the figure is 1.5%. That is a 20.4-fold difference between two sectors of comparable size, and it is the cleanest illustration of why a national average is not much use to a particular founder.
Among the six largest sectors by workplace count, retail is the most large-firm owned and construction is the least. Across all nineteen, retail ranks fifth — the four above it are the head-office, utility, information and finance sectors — so retail is not the most concentrated industry in America. It is the most concentrated of the six sectors that hold the most workplaces, which is a narrower claim and the one the data actually supports.
Both cells are drawn neutrally — this is a contrast between two industries, not a good and a bad outcome. The two percentages in each cell do not sum to 100 because firms of twenty to 499 employees hold the remainder.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, national file us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt, employer firms and their establishments, retrieved from the Census static dataset release on September 14, 2026.
The mirror image: where the small firm still holds the ground
Turn the question over and ask what share of a sector’s workplaces belong to firms with fewer than twenty employees. Construction is 89.8%, other services — repair shops, salons, personal services — is 86.4%, and professional and technical services is 84.1%. These are industries where the small firm is not a survivor but the standard form. Note that small does not mean single-location — this counts employment, not addresses.
Note that the two shares are not opposites of each other. Firms of twenty to 499 employees hold 13.7% of workplaces nationally, and that middle block is what sits between them. A sector can be low on both counts, which is what a mid-sized-firm industry looks like.
The ten largest sectors by workplace count, which together hold 86% of all American employer workplaces. Sectors at or above the 69.6% national figure are drawn in orange, those below it in slate — the same kind of reference used in the first chart, so no sector changes colour meaning between them. This is not the complement of that chart: firms of twenty to 499 employees hold the rest.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, national file us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt, employer firms and their establishments, retrieved from the Census static dataset release on September 14, 2026.
Retail is not the most concentrated industry in America. It is the most concentrated of the six largest — and it holds more workplaces than any other sector.
How many addresses a firm in your sector actually runs
A third way to read the same file: divide a sector’s establishments by the firms operating in it. Across all nineteen sectors utilities comes out highest at 3.02 locations per firm and construction lowest at 1.02. Among the ten largest sectors, which are the ones charted below, finance and insurance leads at 1.97 and retail sits at 1.62. Across every sector the range is narrow compared with the ownership-share numbers, because most firms in every industry run one place — the difference is how much of the sector the multi-location minority controls.
That is the useful distinction between this chart and the first one. A sector can have a low locations-per-firm figure and still be largely large-firm owned, because the handful of firms that do operate many sites operate a very great many. Construction is the sector where neither is true: 1.02 locations per firm and 1.5% large-firm ownership, the lowest on both.
The ten largest sectors by workplace count. Bars are scaled against the largest value shown (1.97); sectors at or above the 1.30 national figure are drawn in orange, those below it in slate. Utilities, which leads all nineteen sectors at 3.02, is not among the ten largest and is not shown here. A firm operating in two sectors is counted once in each, so these figures are locations in that sector per firm present in it, and the sector firm counts do not add up to the national total.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, national file us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt, employer firms and their establishments, retrieved from the Census static dataset release on September 14, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which industry has the most chain-owned locations?
Of the nineteen NAICS sectors, management of companies has the highest share of workplaces owned by firms with 500 or more employees, at 62.8% — but that sector is corporate head offices and holding companies, so it is large-firm owned by definition. Utilities follows at 58.7%. Of the six sectors holding the most workplaces, retail trade at 31.3% is the highest.
What share of retail businesses are chains?
31.3% of retail establishments in the United States belong to a firm with 500 or more employees — roughly one in 3.2. Another 57.3% belong to firms with fewer than twenty employees. Note that this counts locations rather than companies, and that 'firm with 500+ employees' is a size threshold rather than a definition of a chain.
Why is construction so different from retail?
Construction work travels to the customer, so a construction firm can grow without opening more addresses. 89.8% of construction establishments belong to firms with fewer than twenty employees and only 1.5% to firms with 500 or more. That is an interpretation of the pattern rather than something the data states; what the data shows is the two shares.
Do these percentages mean small firms are disappearing?
This is a single year, 2022, so it says nothing about direction. It is a snapshot of who owned which workplaces in that year. A sector with a high large-firm share may have looked the same for decades, and nothing in this file distinguishes a long-standing pattern from a recent shift.
What exactly is being counted here?
Establishments — individual physical locations with at least one paid employee — grouped by the total U.S. employment of the firm that owns them. Businesses with no employees are excluded entirely. The national totals are 8,298,562 establishments owned by 6,395,635 firms. A firm operating in more than one sector is counted in each sector it operates in, which is why the sector firm counts add to slightly more than the national total, though the establishment counts add exactly.
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This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.