The Pest Control Quarterly Index: US Establishments, Employment and Wages

Current reading

• US private pest control establishments reached 17,933 in 2026 Q1, the highest quarterly count on record in this series, up 2.4 percent from 2025 Q1.
• Establishment growth is accelerating. Year-over-year establishment growth ran 0.1 percent, 0.3 percent, 0.7 percent, 1.0 percent and 2.4 percent across the five quarters from 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1.
• Average weekly wages rose 5.9 percent year over year in 2026 Q1, against 1.9 percent employment growth. Pay is rising roughly three times faster than headcount.
• Over eleven years, establishments grew 31.7 percent and employment grew 45.6 percent, while the total wage bill doubled, from $4.330 billion in 2014 to $8.716 billion in 2024.
• Florida is the most pest-control-intensive state, with an employment location quotient of 2.12 in 2026 Q1. Minnesota is the least intensive of the states that clear our reporting threshold, at 0.38.
• Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida is the most pest-control-intensive metro area in the country, with a location quotient of 3.40 in 2024.
• Georgia pays the most and is shedding workers. Georgia’s average weekly wage of $1,557 is the highest of any state, up 14.1 percent year over year, while its employment fell 2.2 percent.
• Most of the country cannot be measured at county level. Of 2,039 county rows for NAICS 561710 in 2024, 1,376 are suppressed for confidentiality and only 663, or 32.5 percent, are usable.

Why this index exists

In short: The pest control figures in general circulation are two to three years old because they come from annual surveys. A quarterly federal series exists, carries data through 2026 Q1, and is not used by anyone in this industry.

Search for pest control employment data and the top result is a Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics page for May 2023. Search for establishment counts and the answers rest on Census County Business Patterns, whose most recent year is 2023. The industry’s own reference points are annual and lagged.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages is different. It is a near-census of employment covered by unemployment insurance, not a sample survey, and it publishes NAICS 561710 at national, state, metropolitan and county level every quarter. Its most recent observation as of this publication is the first quarter of 2026. It also ships two things this industry usually computes by hand: location quotients, which measure geographic concentration against the national average, and year-over-year change fields.

This page is the recurring reading. It is refreshed each quarter when BLS publishes, roughly five to six months after the quarter closes.

This quarter in detail

1. 17,933 establishments. The US had 17,933 private pest control establishments in 2026 Q1, up 418 from 2025 Q1. (BLS QCEW, NAICS 561710, own_code 5, accessed 23 September 2026.)
2. 151,410 employees. Average employment across the three months of 2026 Q1 was 151,410, up 1.9 percent on the same quarter of 2025. (Same source. BLS reports a 1.7 percent change on the month-three level alone.)
3. $1,174 average weekly wage. The 2026 Q1 average weekly wage was $1,174, up $65 or 5.9 percent year over year. (Same source.)
4. $2.311 billion in quarterly wages. Total wages paid in US pest control in 2026 Q1 were $2,310,533,574, up 7.9 percent year over year. (Same source.)
5. Five straight quarters of accelerating establishment growth. Year-over-year establishment growth moved from 0.1 percent in 2025 Q1 to 2.4 percent in 2026 Q1. (Same source.)
6. Eleven-year establishment growth of 31.7 percent. Annual average establishments rose from 13,369 in 2014 to 17,606 in 2024. (BLS QCEW annual files.)
7. Eleven-year employment growth of 45.6 percent. Annual average employment rose from 104,532 in 2014 to 152,174 in 2024. (Same source.)
8. The wage bill doubled. Total annual wages rose from $4.330 billion in 2014 to $8.716 billion in 2024, an increase of 101.3 percent. (Same source.)
9. Florida location quotient 2.12. Florida had 2,500 establishments and 20,762 average employees in 2026 Q1, with an employment location quotient of 2.12, the highest of any state. (Same source.)
10. A 5.6-fold state concentration spread. Florida’s location quotient of 2.12 is 5.6 times Minnesota’s 0.38, the lowest among states clearing our 500-employee reporting threshold. (Author calculation from QCEW.)
11. Cape Coral-Fort Myers location quotient 3.40. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida metropolitan area had 122 establishments and 1,000 employees in 2024, with a location quotient of 3.40, the highest of any metro area with at least 800 pest control employees. (BLS QCEW 2024 annual, MSA level.)
12. Maricopa County leads on employment. Maricopa County, Arizona had 392 establishments and 3,654 pest control employees in 2024, more than Los Angeles County’s 2,963. (Same source, county level.)
13. Georgia pays $1,557 a week. Georgia’s average weekly pest control wage was the highest of any state in 2026 Q1, up 14.1 percent year over year while state employment fell 2.2 percent. (Same source.)
14. 67.5 percent of county rows are unusable. Of 2,039 county-level rows for NAICS 561710 in the 2024 annual file, 1,376 are suppressed to protect employer confidentiality. (Same source.)

The national quarterly series

In short: Establishments, wages and the total wage bill are all rising, and the rate of establishment formation has increased in each of the last five quarters.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, private ownership. Year-over-year figures are as published by BLS in the oty fields. Accessed 23 September 2026.

What it means. The establishment column is the signal. Growth of 0.1 percent in early 2025 was close to a standstill. At 2.4 percent a year later, roughly 418 more establishments exist than twelve months earlier. New establishments are being formed, or existing firms are opening additional locations, at an increasing rate.

What limits it. Employment in this series is strongly seasonal, peaking in the second and third quarters and falling back in the fourth and first. Comparing 2026 Q1 with 2025 Q4 would show a decline of 2,777 that is seasonal rather than economic. Only same-quarter comparisons are meaningful, which is why every change figure above is year over year. An establishment is also a physical location, not a company, so a single firm opening three branches adds three establishments.

The eleven-year record

In short: Employment grew faster than establishments, and the wage bill grew faster than both.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages annual files, NAICS 561710, private ownership, 2014 to 2024. The QCEW industry API does not return data for NAICS 561710 before 2014. Accessed 23 September 2026.

What it means. Employment per establishment rose from 7.8 to 8.6 over the eleven years, so the average establishment got modestly larger. The wage bill grew faster than employment because average pay grew 38.1 percent at the same time. Employment did not fall in any year of this series, including 2020.

What limits it. Average weekly wage here is total wages divided by covered employment across the whole industry, which includes office, sales and management staff. It is not a technician wage. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme reports an annual median of $45,250 for pest control workers specifically, as of May 2025. Those two numbers describe different populations and should never be substituted for one another.

State concentration, 2026 Q1

In short: Pest control employment is more than twice as concentrated as the national average in Florida and less than half as concentrated in much of the upper Midwest and Northeast. Eleven jurisdictions are too small to report.

A location quotient of 1.00 means an industry employs the same share of local workers as it does nationally. Above 1.00 means over-represented. BLS publishes the location quotient in the QCEW file, so the figures below are the agency’s own calculations rather than ours.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2026 Q1, NAICS 561710, private ownership, state aggregation level 58. Employment is the average of the three monthly levels. Location quotient is the BLS-published employment location quotient. Accessed 23 September 2026.

The least concentrated states clearing the reporting threshold are Minnesota at 0.38, Wisconsin at 0.48, Colorado at 0.50, Michigan at 0.50 and Pennsylvania at 0.51.

What it means. The concentration map follows climate and building stock. The top eight states by location quotient are all in the South or Southwest. Warm, humid regions support year-round termite, ant and cockroach pressure, and slab-on-grade construction in the Sun Belt raises subterranean termite exposure. Our termite zone map analysis covers the building-code side of that geography.

Two states break the pattern in opposite directions. Georgia pays the highest weekly wage in the country at $1,557, raised it 14.1 percent in a year, and still lost 2.2 percent of its employment. Utah pays the second highest at $1,516, cut it 5.5 percent, and gained 9.5 percent employment. Those are two different labour markets responding to two different pressures, and neither is explained by the concentration figure alone.

What limits it. Eleven of 53 jurisdictions are excluded from the rankings above because their average quarterly employment is below 500, at which point quarter-to-quarter percentage changes become unreliable. The excluded jurisdictions are Delaware (451 employees), Rhode Island (386), Puerto Rico (371), South Dakota (221), North Dakota (150), Montana (127), Vermont (108), Wyoming (83), the US Virgin Islands (49), Alaska (40) and the District of Columbia (17). The District of Columbia illustrates the reason: its 2026 Q1 monthly employment levels were 22, 22 and 8, and its 2025 Q4 average weekly wage of $3,746 reflects bonus payments spread across about 13 employees rather than local pay levels. No state row in the 2026 Q1 file is suppressed for confidentiality, so the threshold is our editorial choice, not a gap in the data.

Metropolitan concentration

In short: The most pest-control-intensive metro in America is Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida. Los Angeles employs the most pest control workers but is below the national concentration average.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2024 annual, NAICS 561710, private ownership, MSA aggregation level 48. Metro areas shown are those with at least 800 pest control employees and no disclosure suppression. Accessed 23 September 2026.

What it means. Los Angeles has the largest pest control workforce in the country at 4,806 and a location quotient of 0.79, meaning pest control is under-represented there relative to the national average. Cape Coral-Fort Myers has one fifth as many workers and is 3.4 times more concentrated than the national average. Scale and intensity are different questions, and a metro ranking by headcount alone would put the Florida markets in the wrong place. Our metro concentration analysis goes further into that distinction.

What limits it. Metro-level data is annual only in this series. The QCEW industry API returns no MSA rows for quarterly periods, so the most recent metro reading is 2024 while the national and state readings are 2026 Q1. Of 388 MSA rows in the 2024 annual file, 229 are suppressed and only 159 are usable, so this is not a complete metro picture.

County coverage and its limits

In short: Two thirds of US counties cannot be reported for this industry. Any national county map of pest control is therefore incomplete, including ours.

QCEW suppresses any cell where publishing it could disclose an individual employer’s data. For NAICS 561710 in 2024, that means 1,376 of 2,039 county rows are withheld and 663 are usable, a usable share of 32.5 percent.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2024 annual, NAICS 561710, private ownership, county aggregation level 78, unsuppressed rows only. A row labelled “Unknown Or Undefined, Florida” carrying 1,765 employees is excluded because it represents employment not allocated to a specific county. Accessed 23 September 2026.

What it means. Maricopa County, Arizona employs more pest control workers than Los Angeles County despite having roughly a third of the population, which is the county-level version of the Sun Belt concentration seen in the state and metro tables. Our county-level analysis of pest control companies covers the fuller picture using a different source.

What limits it. The 663 usable counties are not a random sample. Suppression is most likely in counties with few employers, so the usable set is biased toward larger markets. Summing usable counties will always understate national totals, and no one should do it.

Three indicators we compute

1. The Wage-Headcount Divergence

Definition. The ratio of year-over-year average weekly wage growth to year-over-year employment growth, measured on the same quarter of the same industry.

Formula. Divergence = oty_avg_wkly_wage_pct_chg / oty_month3_emplvl_pct_chg.

Inputs. BLS QCEW quarterly file, NAICS 561710, own_code 5, US total.

Result. 2026 Q1: 5.9 / 1.7 = 3.5. Using the three-month average employment change of 1.9 percent instead gives 3.1. Either way, pay per worker is rising roughly three times faster than the number of workers.

Limitations. The ratio is unstable when the denominator approaches zero and is undefined if employment growth is negative, so it should be read alongside the raw percentages rather than alone. Average weekly wage includes bonus and incentive pay, which concentrates in the first and fourth quarters. It covers all industry employees, not technicians.

2. Establishment Formation Acceleration

Definition. The change in the year-over-year establishment growth rate across consecutive quarters, which indicates whether business formation in the industry is speeding up or slowing down.

Formula. Acceleration = oty_qtrly_estabs_pct_chg for quarter t, minus the same field for quarter t−1.

Inputs. BLS QCEW quarterly files, 2025 Q1 through 2026 Q1.

Result. The growth rate rose in every one of the four transitions: +0.2, +0.4, +0.3 and +1.4 percentage points, taking establishment growth from 0.1 percent to 2.4 percent. The largest single step is the most recent one.

Limitations. Five quarters is a short series and one more quarter could break the pattern. Establishment counts are administrative records and can move when a multi-location firm reorganises its reporting, which resembles formation without being it. QCEW establishment counts are also revised.

3. Concentration Spread

Definition. The ratio of the highest state employment location quotient to the lowest, among states clearing a minimum employment threshold.

Formula. Spread = max(LQ) / min(LQ) across states with average quarterly employment of at least 500.

Inputs. BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, state level, NAICS 561710, own_code 5.

Result. 2.12 / 0.38 = 5.6 times. Florida is 5.6 times more pest-control-intensive than Minnesota.

Limitations. The result depends on the threshold. Including all 53 jurisdictions would put the District of Columbia at 0.01 in the denominator and return a spread of 212, which is an artifact of a 17-employee cell rather than a finding. A location quotient measures employment share, not spending, infestation rates or service prices. This figure converges with the 5.5-fold spread our market density index found using establishments per capita from a different Census source, which is useful independent corroboration by two different methods.

Download the data

The tables in this report are published as CSV files under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You may republish, remix and build on them, including commercially, with attribution to The Pest Control Brief and a link to this page.

• Quarterly establishments, employment and wages, 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1 (CSV, 5 rows)
• Annual establishments, employment, wages and total payroll, 2014 to 2024 (CSV, 11 rows)

How to cite this report

The Pest Control Brief, “The Pest Control Quarterly Index: US Establishments, Employment and Wages”, 2 October 2026. https://thepestcontrolbrief.com/pest-control-quarterly-index/

References

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, private ownership. Open industry endpoint, 2026 first quarter: data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2026/1/industry/561710.csv. Accessed 23 September 2026.
2. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual files 2014 to 2024, same endpoint pattern with /a/ in place of the quarter. Accessed 23 September 2026.
3. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW area titles reference file, used to resolve metropolitan and county names. data.bls.gov/cew/doc/titles/area/area_titles.csv. Accessed 23 September 2026.
4. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, SOC 37-2021 Pest Control Workers. bls.gov/oes/current/oes372021.htm. May 2025 reference period. Accessed 23 September 2026. Cited once for the occupational wage contrast.

How the index is built

Source. All figures come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, accessed through the open industry endpoint at data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/{year}/{period}/industry/561710.csv. No API key is required. QCEW is a near-census of jobs covered by state unemployment insurance programmes and the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees programme, not a sample survey.

Scope. NAICS 561710, Exterminating and Pest Control Services. All figures are restricted to private ownership, own_code 5, which excludes federal, state and local government units. Failing to apply that filter inflates every count.

Aggregation levels used. 18 for national, 58 for state, 48 for metropolitan area, 78 for county.

Employment definition. Quarterly files report three monthly employment levels. We use the mean of the three as the quarter’s employment. BLS year-over-year change fields are calculated on the month-three level, so where we quote a BLS oty field we say so, and where we quote our three-month average we say that instead. For 2026 Q1 the two give 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.

Reporting threshold. State rankings exclude jurisdictions with average quarterly employment below 500 because percentage changes in small cells are dominated by noise. All eleven excluded jurisdictions are named in the state section with their employment levels. This is an editorial threshold, not a data limitation: no state row in the 2026 Q1 file is suppressed.

Suppression handling. Rows carrying a disclosure code are excluded from all tables and calculations. Suppression counts are reported rather than hidden: 0 of 53 state rows, 229 of 388 MSA rows, and 1,376 of 2,039 county rows in the periods used.

Conflicting measures. QCEW average weekly wage covers all employees of the industry. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics reports pay for the occupation of pest control worker, SOC 37-2021, at an annual median of $45,250 as of May 2025. These measure different populations. This report does not mix them and neither should any citation of it.

Known limitations. The QCEW industry API returns no data for NAICS 561710 before 2014, so the annual series starts there. Metropolitan data is available annually but not quarterly in this endpoint. Establishment counts measure locations, not firms. QCEW data is revised, so figures may change in later releases. Employment is seasonal and only same-quarter comparisons are used. Revenue is not measured by QCEW at all: for revenue see our industry statistics page.

Refresh schedule. BLS publishes QCEW roughly five to six months after a quarter closes. The 2026 Q2 file is expected around December 2026. This page is updated on each release.

Last reviewed: 23 September 2026.

Data source

Tier 1, primary government data. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, quarterly files 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1 and annual files 2014 to 2024. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, area titles reference file, for metro and county names. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, SOC 37-2021, May 2025, cited once for the occupational wage contrast.

Tier 2, credible secondary, not used in calculations. None of the figures in this report derives from a secondary source.

Tier 3, journalism. Not used.

Excluded. Paywalled market-research employment estimates were excluded because their methodology is not inspectable. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics figures were excluded from all industry-level counts because they measure an occupation rather than an industry.

Citing the index

Most quotable statistics

1. The US had 17,933 pest control establishments in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.4 percent year over year.
2. Pest control wages are rising about three times faster than pest control employment.
3. Florida is 5.6 times more pest-control-intensive than Minnesota.
4. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida is the most pest-control-intensive metro area in the United States.
5. Two thirds of US counties cannot be reported for this industry because of confidentiality suppression.

Data limitations to quote alongside them

QCEW counts establishments, not companies. Employment is seasonal, so only same-quarter comparisons are valid. The average weekly wage covers all industry employees, not technicians. Metro figures are 2024, not 2026.

Fields in the published CSV files

Period; area FIPS; area title; aggregation level; NAICS code; ownership code; establishments; monthly employment levels 1 to 3; average employment; average weekly wage; total quarterly wages; employment location quotient; year-over-year establishment change; year-over-year wage change; disclosure code.

Press summary

The United States had 17,933 private pest control establishments in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.4 percent year over year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data analysed by The Pest Control Brief. Establishment growth has accelerated in each of the last five quarters, from 0.1 percent to 2.4 percent. Average weekly wages rose 5.9 percent over the year while employment rose 1.9 percent, meaning pay is climbing roughly three times faster than headcount. Florida is the most pest-control-intensive state with an employment location quotient of 2.12, and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida is the most intensive metro area in the country at 3.40. Over eleven years the industry’s total wage bill doubled, from $4.330 billion in 2014 to $8.716 billion in 2024. Two thirds of county-level records are suppressed for confidentiality, so no complete county map of the industry is possible.

Five headlines editors could use

1. Pest control firms are opening at the fastest rate in five quarters
2. Pest control pay is rising three times faster than pest control hiring
3. Florida has 5.6 times more pest control work per worker than Minnesota
4. The most bug-dependent economy in America is Cape Coral, Florida
5. The pest control wage bill has doubled in a decade

Index questions

How many pest control companies are there in the United States?

There were 17,933 private pest control establishments in the first quarter of 2026. An establishment is a physical location rather than a company, so the number of companies is lower.

Is the pest control industry growing?

Yes, on every measure in this series. Establishments rose 2.4 percent year over year in 2026 Q1, employment rose 1.9 percent, and the total wage bill rose 7.9 percent.

How much does the pest control industry pay?

The average weekly wage across all pest control employees was $1,174 in 2026 Q1, equivalent to about $61,000 a year. That figure includes office, sales and management staff. For technicians specifically, BLS reports an annual median of $45,250 as of May 2025. See our technician pay by state analysis.

Which state has the most pest control businesses?

Florida, with 2,500 establishments in 2026 Q1, ahead of California at 2,128 and Texas at 1,587.

Which state is most dependent on pest control work?

Florida, with an employment location quotient of 2.12, meaning pest control accounts for 2.12 times as large a share of Florida employment as it does nationally.

Why is the District of Columbia excluded?

Its monthly employment levels in 2026 Q1 were 22, 22 and 8. Percentage changes on a base that small are noise, so we exclude jurisdictions below 500 average employees and name every exclusion.

Why are metro figures from 2024 when national figures are from 2026?

The QCEW industry endpoint returns metropolitan rows in annual files only. No quarterly metro data is available for this industry through that route.

Can I add up the counties to get a national total?

No. Only 663 of 2,039 county rows are usable, so any sum of counties will substantially understate the national figure.

What is the difference between QCEW and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics?

QCEW counts jobs and wages in an industry. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme counts workers in an occupation. QCEW reports 151,410 employees in the pest control industry; the occupational programme reports a smaller number of pest control workers, because the industry employs people who are not technicians.

How often is this page updated?

Each quarter, when BLS publishes the next QCEW file, roughly five to six months after the quarter closes. The next expected release is 2026 Q2, around December 2026.