Florida Construction Industry 2026

Florida had 656,700 seasonally adjusted construction jobs in August 2026, a preliminary BLS estimate 0.3 percent above August 2025.

The monthly series in the BLS Economy at a Glance table for Florida held between 651,800 in March 2026 and 656,900 in April 2026, and its 12-month change moved from minus 1.3 percent in March to plus 0.3 percent in August (BLS Economy at a Glance, Florida). The table was extracted on October 16, 2026, and the August figure is marked preliminary.

The annual payroll count comes from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. For 2025 it shows 86,656 private construction establishments in Florida with 655,646 jobs and average annual pay of $73,949, and construction jobs up 7,765, or 1.2 percent, from 2024 (BLS QCEW 2025, Florida). For comparison, all private Florida employers in the same file averaged $72,719 in annual pay across 8,814,642 jobs.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the August 2026 BLS state employment table, the 2025 QCEW Florida file, the Census Bureau's 2024 and 2025 state permit files, the DBPR construction licensing page, the Florida Building Commission home page and section 553.899.

Specialty trade contractors hold 435,112 of Florida's construction jobs, the largest of the three construction subsectors in the 2025 federal payroll count.

Building equipment contractors are the largest four-digit construction industry group in the file at 195,527 jobs (BLS QCEW 2025). Among the four-digit construction groups in the file, pay runs highest in nonresidential building at $103,256 and lowest among building finishing contractors at $56,906; new single-family general contractors averaged $101,694. Heavy and civil engineering added 2,314 jobs in 2025, a 2.8 percent gain, while building finishing contractors lost 2,154 jobs, down 2.8 percent.

Florida single-family permits fell to 111,173 in 2025 from 123,359 in 2024, while permits for units in buildings with five or more units rose to 63,075 from 47,016, in Census Bureau permit data.

The 2025 annual Building Permits Survey file shows 111,173 single-family units authorized in Florida with a construction value of $37,010,885,000, plus 2,644 units in two-unit buildings, 1,405 units in three- and four-unit buildings and 63,075 units in 1,549 buildings of five or more units valued at $11,942,703,000 (Census BPS 2025 state file). The 2024 file shows 123,359 single-family units valued at $39,028,721,000 and 47,016 units in 1,441 large multifamily buildings (Census BPS 2024 state file). Texas, with 140,579 single-family units in 2025, authorized more single-family homes than Florida.

In the payroll data, new single-family general contractors lost 406 jobs in 2025, down 1.1 percent, even as their establishment count grew by 554, while residential remodelers added 1,443 jobs, up 4.9 percent (BLS QCEW 2025).

Lee County authorized the most single-family homes in Florida in 2025 with 9,962, while Miami-Dade led for large multifamily buildings with 13,292 units in buildings of five or more units.

The county file reports the value of Lee County's single-family permits at $2,930,727,068 and Miami-Dade's large multifamily permits at $3,361,255,258 (Census BPS 2025 county file). Single-family permits cluster in Lee, Manatee, Polk, Pasco, Marion and Osceola counties, while the largest counts of units in big multifamily buildings are in Miami-Dade, Orange and Hillsborough counties.

The Construction Industry Licensing Board, on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) site, licenses and regulates Florida's construction industry through statewide certificates and local registrations.

A certified contractor holds a state certificate of competency and may contract in any Florida jurisdiction; certified license codes begin with C. A registered contractor met a local jurisdiction's competency requirements and may contract only there; registered codes begin with R (DBPR Construction Industry). The board meets regularly to consider applications, review disciplinary cases and hold informal hearings.

The three main building licenses differ by scope. A general contractor (CG or RG) is unlimited as to the type of work. A building contractor (CB or RB) is limited to commercial buildings and single- or multiple-dwelling residential buildings of no more than three stories, plus accessory structures. A residential contractor (CR or RR) is limited to one-, two- or three-family residences of no more than two stories (DBPR). DBPR contracts with Professional Testing, Inc. to register candidates and develop and score the exams, so applicants for the trade knowledge, contract administration, project management or business and finance parts apply directly with that company. Working without the required license carries a legal cost for the contractor: under section 489.128 of the Florida Statutes, contracts entered into on or after October 1, 1990 by an unlicensed contractor are unenforceable in law or in equity by that contractor (section 489.128, Florida Statutes).

Florida general, building and residential contractors renew by August 31 of even years (certified) or odd years (registered), completing 14 hours of continuing education and paying a $205 renewal fee, plus $50 for each qualified business.

Each 14-hour package must include at least one hour each of a specialized or advanced module, workplace safety, business practices, workers' compensation, and laws and rules; general and building contractors also need one hour of wind mitigation and one hour on cementitious cladding, stucco, plastering and lath (DBPR CE requirements). DBPR's page set the latest deadline as midnight on August 31, 2026, so certified contractors who missed that renewal should check the delinquent licensee instructions on the same page.

The Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), took effect December 31, 2023, and the Florida Building Commission posts materials for a 2026 update.

The Florida Building Commission's home page gives the 8th Edition effective date and posts materials and tracking charts for the 2026 update, along with a minor violations list and milestone inspection resources; its contact line lists 850-487-1824, and the page gives 850-487-1395 for questions (Florida Building Commission).

Older condominium and cooperative towers carry a separate obligation set by the Legislature. Under section 553.899 of the Florida Statutes, a residential condominium or cooperative building three habitable stories or more in height must have a milestone inspection by December 31 of the year it reaches 30 years of age, counted from its certificate of occupancy, and every 10 years after that (section 553.899, Florida Statutes). A local enforcement agency may move that to 25 years where local conditions such as proximity to salt water call for it. Buildings that turned 30 before July 1, 2022 had to be inspected before December 31, 2024, and those reaching 30 between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 before December 31, 2025.