Crowded professional trades
These sit well above the typical county, and 98 of 100 real estate locations have fewer than 10 staff. A small firm competes against many peers and must stand out by specialty and by language.
Fifteen trades counted from Census records 
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Miami-Dade County Business Landscape: How Crowded Each Trade Is and Where the Growth Went
GetPhound is an online marketing company for businesses in Miami-Dade County, and this page reads the county's employer records the way a marketer would: how many businesses compete in each trade, how big they are and which ones grew since 2017. The numbers decide how hard SEO and paid ads have to work.
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Employer Records Show the Competition, and What They Leave Out
The county counts 95,916 employer locations and 1,009,443 employees in the County Business Patterns series for 2022. That is a large base for a single county, and it is why many trades look crowded across Miami Dade. The series counts businesses with paid employees at one site each, so a sole proprietor, a gig worker or an unregistered operator is not in it. In a county where many tradespeople work alone, real competition for businesses in Miami-Dade County, Florida is larger than the tables show.
Two more caveats apply here. The tables list fifteen trades, not hotels, tour operators, cruise suppliers or freight forwarders, which carry a lot of weight in a county with a major airport and seaport, as the next sections discuss. And the figures are survey years, 2017 and 2022, so they describe a recent past, not this week.
- 95,916Employer locations (2022)
- 1,009,443Employees at those locations
- 2,686,867Estimated residents, 2023
- -0.6 percentPopulation change, 2020 to 2023
- 4.6 percentUnemployment rate (survey)
All fifteen trades
Every Trade in the Records, Counted and Compared With the Typical County
Read across a row to see how many locations a trade has, how that compares with the typical county, how many are small shops and how many have 20 or more staff.
| Trade | Employer locations | Locations per 10,000 residents | Compared with a typical county | Shops under 10 staff | Firms with 20+ staff | Net change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential remodelers | 1,011 | 3.8 | 1.2 times | 96 of 100 | 10 | +73.1 percent |
| Roofing contractors | 197 | 0.7 | 0.9 times | 76 of 100 | 25 | +47 percent |
| Electrical contractors | 809 | 3 | 1.3 times | 82 of 100 | 68 | +22 percent |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 995 | 3.7 | 1.1 times | 83 of 100 | 70 | +16.6 percent |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 1,549 | 5.8 | 1.6 times | 90 of 100 | 57 | +18.2 percent |
| Real estate agents and brokers | 2,606 | 9.7 | 3.5 times | 98 of 100 | 25 | +30.3 percent |
| Law offices | 4,064 | 15.1 | 5.2 times | 91 of 100 | 180 | +5.5 percent |
| Accounting and CPA firms | 806 | 3 | 2.2 times | 92 of 100 | 38 | -1.7 percent |
| Janitorial services | 666 | 2.5 | 1.4 times | 85 of 100 | 50 | +25 percent |
| Landscaping services | 607 | 2.3 | 0.7 times | 88 of 100 | 35 | +15.2 percent |
| Physicians offices | 2,769 | 10.3 | 2.5 times | 81 of 100 | 273 | -2.8 percent |
| Dentists | 1,509 | 5.6 | 2 times | 85 of 100 | 34 | +13.6 percent |
| Full-service restaurants | 2,439 | 9.1 | 1.4 times | 52 of 100 | 807 | +7.3 percent |
| General automotive repair | 603 | 2.2 | 0.9 times | 96 of 100 | 7 | +0.8 percent |
| Beauty salons | 934 | 3.5 | 1.8 times | 95 of 100 | 11 | +14.5 percent |
Source: Census County Business Patterns, 2022 against 2017. Only businesses with paid employees are counted, so people who work alone are missing. Typical is the middle county among those with 20,000 or more residents.
Crowded
The Trades Where a New Customer Has the Most Choices
Law offices are the most crowded trade in the table: 4,064 locations, 15.1 for every 10,000 residents, 5.2 times the typical county. Real estate agents and brokers follow with 2,606 locations and 3.5 times the typical rate, then physician offices at 2.5 times, accounting firms at 2.2 times and dentists at 2 times. Beauty salons, insurance agencies and janitorial services also sit above the typical county.
Crowding changes the marketing job. For a business in Miami Dade with many rivals, in a trade with many choices, a customer compares several names before calling, so a profile with strong reviews, a page for each specialty and a clear next step matter more than a generic listing. For these trades SEO and Google Maps work are the base, and a paid test can show quickly which service lines bring in calls.
Three shapes of competition
Crowded, Fast-Growing and Wide-Open: How the Trades Group
The same table groups into three situations, each with its own marketing implication.
Fast-growing home trades
Residential remodelers grew 73.1 percent from 2017 to 2022, to 1,011 locations, and roofing contractors grew 47 percent to 197. New firms arrive quickly, so a business that waited is already competing with them.
Open lanes
Landscaping services (2.3 per 10,000 residents, 0.7 times the typical county) and general automotive repair (0.9 times) sit below the typical county, which suggests room for a clearly positioned business to be found.
Building activity
Permit Counts for New Housing, One Row for Each Year Since 2021
Permits show where building work will come from. They count authorizations, not finished homes, and a business should read them as direction, not as an order book.
| Calendar year | Housing units authorized |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 13,393 |
| 2022 | 11,305 |
| 2023 | 12,781 |
| 2024 | 10,608 |
| 2025 | 14,193 |
Source: Census Building Permits Survey; it counts authorizations for new private housing, not completed homes.
Growth and permits
What Growth Since 2017 and New Permits Say About Where Demand Is Moving
The table shows residential remodelers at the top for change since 2017, +73.1 percent, with roofing, real estate, janitorial and electrical all adding locations. Only physician offices and accounting firms lost any: -2.8 percent and -1.7 percent. That pattern fits a county where construction employment was the fastest growing industry in a federal table covering December 2024, up 3.9 percent.
Permits support the same story across the county. The county authorized 13,393 units in 2021, 11,305 in 2022, 12,781 in 2023, 10,608 in 2024 and 14,193 in 2025. A year-to-year dip does not erase the fact that thousands of new homes need electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, landscaping and cleaning each year. Newly arrived residents do not know any local trade by name yet, so search and Maps are where they pick one.
Employment sectors
The Largest Employment Sectors, and What They Mean for Business-to-Business Marketing
The Census survey also shows where residents work. If your customers are other businesses, these sectors show where to aim content and ads.
| Employment sector | Employed residents | Portion of the workforce |
|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 178,990 | 13.3 percent |
| Retail trade | 145,570 | 10.8 percent |
| Construction | 117,069 | 8.7 percent |
| Transportation and warehousing | 109,875 | 8.2 percent |
| Accommodation and food services | 109,137 | 8.1 percent |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 104,567 | 7.8 percent |
Source: Census ACS 5-year estimates, 2018 to 2022, covering employed residents aged 16 and over.
The trades the table leaves out
Trade, Travel and Tourism Are the Visitor Lens Behind the Numbers
County employment figures for December 2024 put trade, transportation and utilities first at 319,200 jobs, education and health services second at 215,400, professional and business services at 188,200 and leisure and hospitality at 154,000. Miami International Airport and PortMiami together generated an estimated 242.8 billion dollars of impact in 2024 and supported nearly 1.2 million jobs. None of that is a line in the fifteen-trade table, yet it shapes demand for every trade that is.
A restaurant near Miami Beach, a dentist near the Health District, an electrician near the airport and a janitorial company serving offices in Doral all depend on visitors, travelers or trade partners in addition to residents. When we build a plan for companies in Miami-Dade County we ask where the business sits relative to those anchors, because it changes the best channel and the best months for it.
First moves
Where We Would Begin for Each Group of Trades
These are starting points, not promises. A specific plan depends on your areas, languages and capacity.
| Trade group | What the numbers suggest | Where we would start |
|---|---|---|
| Law offices, accountants, real estate | Very crowded, mostly small teams | Specialty pages, reviews, a Spanish option and Google Business Profile by area. |
| Physicians and dentists | Crowded, with larger practices holding many locations | Service and insurance pages, Maps profiles for each location, appointment forms that work on a phone. |
| Plumbing, HVAC and electrical | Near the typical county, 22 percent growth in electrical | Emergency and storm pages, tracked calls, a paid test during the wet season. |
| Residential remodelers and roofers | Fastest growth of any trade since 2017 | Project galleries, area pages, financing and permit explanations that new owners search for. |
| Restaurants and beauty salons | Many locations, with restaurants the largest employers by staff | Maps profiles, photos, menus or services pages and visitor-season content. |
| Landscaping, cleaning and auto repair | Open lanes or steady growth | Area pages, recurring-service offers and review collection after every job. |
Questions
Reading the Fifteen-Trade Table Without Misreading It
How crowded is my trade in Miami-Dade County?
Find it in the fifteen-trade table above: the per 10,000 column and the times-typical column show crowding. Trades above 2 times the typical county, such as law and real estate, need strong reviews and specialty pages. If your trade is not in the table, we can estimate its competition from other sources.
What does Miami-Dade County business landscape data cost?
Reading and using the numbers is part of our planning. Plans begin at $495 a month for RankGuarantee™ landing pages, $895 a month for managed paid ads (ad spend is separate) and $1,495 a month for Organic Growth SEO. You pay nothing up front and can leave at any time.
Why are sole proprietors missing from the table?
The County Business Patterns series counts employer locations only, so people who work alone without payroll are not included. In trades such as remodeling and landscaping that can be a large group, so true competition is higher than the table suggests.
Can I use the permit figures to forecast next year?
They give direction, not a forecast. Permits count housing units authorized, not homes finished, and they vary from one year to the next. Use them to judge whether new homes keep being added across the county, then check that against your own pipeline of enquiries and quotes.
Which trade is expanding fastest in the county right now?
Between 2017 and 2022, residential remodelers grew the most in the Census records, followed by roofing contractors. Growth in a trade usually means more competitors as well as more work, so the quality of your pages, profile and reviews matters more as it climbs.
How should a small business compete with larger ones?
Pick a service and an area where you can be the clear choice, build pages and a Maps profile around it and ask for reviews on every job. Large firms hold many locations; a focused small firm can still win specific searches.
Are these figures live or from a survey year?
They are survey years, not live counts: ACS 2018 to 2022, County Business Patterns 2017 and 2022 and the Building Permits Survey through 2025. We treat them as a snapshot of the recent past and refresh the page when the Census releases newer data.
Keep exploring
Next Steps Once You Know Your Lane
Start Here
- Search Engine OptimizationName-by-name search engine optimization for a county of 34 cities, plus how to judge any SEO company or consultant.
- Digital MarketingA 90 day order of work for a high-season county, written for three kinds of business and a map of 34 cities.
- Online MarketingThe presence audit for a county where a stranger's phone search decides the visit: what to check, in what order, by kind of business.
- HomeAn online marketing company for the whole county: search first, then paid ads, Maps, AI search and the website.
Get Found in Search
Paid Advertising
- Google Ads ManagementPaid search drawn around corridors, causeways and peak weeks instead of a county-wide circle, with calls tracked from the first click.
- PPC ManagementWhen paid clicks should lead, share or trail organic work in the trades with the most neighbors, and which ad channels deserve a test.
- Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram)Facebook and Instagram advertising for a county of renters, families, retirees and visitors, with honest notes on what it cannot do.
Website and Content
- Lead GenerationWhere a call, form or message really starts in a county of residents, visitors and international trade, and how to own that channel.
- Website DesignWebsites for a business that serves several cities, two languages and customers who reach it by phone, with a page for every area and service.
- Content MarketingA publishing calendar for a county where visitors, storms and winter events change what customers search for, month by month.
Around the County
- Marketing by AreaFourteen areas of a very large county, how they group, what customers call them and the order in which a business can realistically cover them.
- Local Business Landscape (you are here)Fifteen trades counted from Census records: which are crowded, which are small shops, which grew since 2017 and what new home permits add.
Get in Touch
See Where Your Trade Sits
Tell us your trade and the areas you serve, and we will show how crowded your lane is and which marketing channel to start with. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.