Labor-Intense: 1M Cleaners at Thousands of Firms

BROOKLYN, NY -- The U.S. commercial cleaning sector entered 2026 as a labor-cost business of roughly one million payroll workers and tens of thousands of competing firms.

The contract-cleaning industry, classified under NAICS 561720 (Janitorial Services), recorded $74.03 billion in receipts in 2022, employed 1.067 million payroll workers, and paid $30.78 billion in annual payroll, according to the 2022 U.S. Census's Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB).

A June industry report from Opora Supply says the broader janitor-and-cleaner occupation, which adds in-house staff at schools, hospitals, and government, numbered about 2.45 million workers in May 2024, per the BLS.

The janitorial-services industry counted 62,970 firms and 67,295 establishments in 2022, and 89.0% of firms employed fewer than 20 workers.

Janitorial-services revenue rose from $44.2 billion in 2015 to $72.8 billion in 2022. Census receipts for NAICS 56172, published through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The median wage for janitors and cleaners was $17.27 per hour in May 2024, and the occupation employed about 2.45 million workers.

BLS projects two percent employment growth for janitors and cleaners from 2024 to 2034, with about 47,800 openings per year. The BLS classifies the projected change as slower than the all-occupation average, with most openings arising from the need to replace workers who leave.

Employer benefit costs averaged 29.9 percent of total compensation for private-industry workers in December 2025. BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) report $46.15 in total compensation per hour worked for private-industry workers, of which $13.79 was benefits, per the BLS ECEC summary.

Federal agencies obligated $1.7 billion to janitorial-services contracts in FY2024 and $1.8 billion in FY2025.

State minimum wages ranged from $7.25 to $17.95 per hour as of January 1, 2026. The U.S. Department of Labor reports the District of Columbia at $17.95, Washington at $17.13, and New York City at $17.00, against $7.25 in states that follow the federal floor, per the DOL State Minimum Wage Laws table. The spread, which exceeds 2.4 times between the highest and lowest jurisdictions, shapes the regional pricing dispersion.

One manufacturer reported its 10,000th autonomous floor-cleaning robot sold in June 2025. Tennant Company stated cumulative autonomous-mobile-robot (AMR) revenue above $250 million and FY2024 AMR sales of $75 million across approximately 900 customers in 25 countries.

The report identified three industry trends: First, distribution consolidated faster than services by deal count. For example, Imperial Dade has acquired 97 distributors, and the BradyPLUS merger closed in March 2026.

Second, services consolidation proceeded through sponsor-backed platforms acquiring regional operators, as in the recent 4M, Rainier Partners–Kleen-Tech, and Boyne Capital–H&B transactions.

Third, valuation disclosure remained rare: of the transactions listed, only ABM's $119 million Quality Uptime acquisition carried a disclosed price, per ABM, because ABM is an SEC registrant; the privately held acquirers disclosed no terms. Operators evaluating their own position in this consolidation can review unit economics at account profitability.
The sector's economics are simple to state and hard to execute: a contractor wins work priced in cents per square foot, staffs it with labor priced at a national median near $17 per hour, and must clear the gap between the two after payroll taxes, benefits, workers' compensation, supplies, and overhead.

For more, go to oporasupply.com.