Construction Leads 22,785 New Business Records in 4 Cities

The business-formation clock captured 22,785 new business records across four municipal feeds, and Construction is the top coded sector at 15.5%. Only 54.3% of those records carry a sector code, so the sector mix describes a coded subset of the capture, not all of it.

New business registrations (the new-filing stream, excluding renewals) captured from the open municipal business-license datasets of Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, San Francisco, CA by the US Tech Automations business-formation clock between June 26, 2026 and October 10, 2026. This is a census of those four municipal datasets, not of every business formed in the United States or in any single state.

Every figure describes the tracked metros only, never a city, state or national total. This is one sealed cross-section, so it shows what was captured, not what changed.

22,785 new business records captured across four municipal feeds.

The 22,785 total is a capture count across four feeds, not a count of construction businesses. Los Angeles supplies 10,574 records, San Francisco 5,840, Chicago 4,234 and New York City 2,137. The feeds are not built alike: Los Angeles and San Francisco publish a NAICS code, while Chicago and New York City publish a free-text licensed activity instead.

Los Angeles supplies most of the coded records: its feed carries 97.4% NAICS coverage across 10,574 records, against 35.5% in San Francisco's 5,840. But Los Angeles is led by Retail Trade at 15.5%, and Construction's narrow overall lead depends on San Francisco, where it leads at 21.6%. Construction's lead over Retail Trade, 15.5% to 14.7%, is narrow, so the coded mix should not be read as a picture of every new business in any one city.

What the Feeds Show

Each figure below comes from the sealed snapshot dated October 10, 2026.

• 22,785 new business records across four tracked metros.

• Construction is the top coded sector at 15.5%.

• 54.3% of all captured records carry a sector code.

• Los Angeles reports 97.4% NAICS coverage; San Francisco 35.5%.

• Construction leads San Francisco's coded records at 21.6%.

• Home Improvement Contractor leads New York City at 399 records.

Los Angeles carries 10,574 records at 97.4% NAICS coverage; San Francisco carries 5,840 records at 35.5%.

The Capture at a Glance

The earliest dated record, March 28, 2026, falls before the June 26, 2026 collection start. This edition does not reconcile that gap, so read the capture window as beginning June 26, 2026.

Where the Coded Sectors Sit

A coded record is one whose own NAICS code is present. The shares below are of the 12,373 coded records, not of all 22,785.

The table lists the top eight sectors in the sealed set. Construction leads, with Retail Trade close behind at 1,814 records against 1,921. The NAICS Construction sector covers building construction and specialty trade contractors.

Construction is the top coded sector at 15.5%.

For a wider look across cities, read which US city is starting the most new businesses as context, not as a matching series.

The Last 90 Days, Sector by Sector

The trailing window runs from July 12, 2026 to October 10, 2026 and holds 8,695 records in total. Retail Trade is the top coded sector there at 17.6%. The window sits inside the full capture, so the two tables overlap. They describe different slices of the same feeds, not a before-and-after.

The trailing 90-day window holds 8,695 records, and Retail Trade leads its coded records at 17.6%.

Free-Text Activities in Chicago and New York City

Chicago and New York City publish a licensed activity rather than a NAICS code, so these labels are not sectors and do not enter the coded mix. Both feeds show 100.0% activity coverage, so every record in them carries a label. Chicago's leading label is an event organizer working with retail vendors on short shows. New York City's is a home improvement contractor, the more direct signal for anyone selling into renovation work there. For more on each city, see the Chicago formations post and the New York City formations post.

How the Four Metros Line Up

Los Angeles is the busiest feed in the set and New York City the smallest. Those are feed sizes, not measures of each city's economy. Two metros report sectors and two report activities, so the mix columns are not directly comparable. The leading-label column pairs a sector share with an activity count, so read each row on its own terms.

Reading the Sealed Numbers

The source is the US Tech Automations business-formation clock (new-business registrations from open municipal Socrata datasets, captured daily and content-hashed).

Every count is a verbatim count of distinct business registrations the clock actually captured; nothing is estimated, modeled or extrapolated. Each formation is counted once at first observation. NAICS sectors are grouped from the first two digits of each record's own NAICS code (SF and LA carry NAICS; Chicago and NYC publish a free-text activity, summarized separately). Figures describe the tracked metros only and must never be presented as a city-wide, statewide or national total.

Coverage is the four tracked municipal datasets, and only those. The NAICS caveat applies to the whole capture: 54.3% of records carry a sector code, and the sector shares use only the 12,373 coded records. Chicago and New York City contribute no NAICS sector at all.

The Chicago source is titled Business Licenses on the City of Chicago data portal (https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/r5kz-chrr). The San Francisco source is titled Registered Business Locations on the DataSF portal (https://data.sf.gov/resource/g8m3-pdis), reached from the data.sfgov.org address by redirect. The pages we could read show dataset titles but not the field-level filter, so the exclusion of renewals is the clock's own logic.

Known limits: the window is short, and counts are net listings, not outcomes. A captured registration shows that a filing appeared in a municipal feed. It does not show that the business opened, hired or sold anything. The earliest-date gap described above is also unresolved in this edition.

1. Collect. Pull each tracked metro's open municipal dataset once per day.

2. Filter. Keep new filings and exclude renewals before counting.

3. Normalize. Group Los Angeles and San Francisco records by the first two digits of their NAICS code. Keep Chicago and New York City activities as free-text labels.

4. Deduplicate. Count each formation once, at first observation.

5. Seal. Content-hash the day's capture so every published count traces to its snapshot.

6. Aggregate. Sum the window for each metro and publish counts for the tracked metros only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is 22,785 the number of new businesses in these four cities?
A: No. It is a count of distinct new business registrations captured from four municipal datasets between June 26, 2026 and October 10, 2026. It is not any city's total, and it makes no claim to be every business formed in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City or San Francisco.

Q: Why does only 54.3% of the capture carry a sector?
A: Los Angeles and San Francisco publish NAICS codes, while Chicago and New York City publish free-text activities that are not NAICS sectors. The 54.3% is coded records as a share of all captured records. The sector shares cover the 12,373 coded records only, so uncoded records are counted in the capture but left out of the sector mix.

Q: Which sector should a service business watch first?
A: Start with the metro you sell into. In Los Angeles, Retail Trade is the leading coded sector at 15.5%. In San Francisco, Construction leads at 21.6%. For Chicago and New York City, use the activity labels and keep them out of any sector totals.

Q: Does the trailing 90-day table show whether new registrations are rising?
A: No. The trailing window runs from July 12, 2026 to October 10, 2026 and sits inside the full capture, so the two tables overlap. This edition is one sealed cross-section with no earlier edition to compare against. Counts are net listings, not outcomes.

Q: What is a sealed snapshot?
A: A sealed snapshot is one day's capture of each municipal feed, content-hashed so that any count published from it can be traced back to the snapshot it came from.

Put Formation Data to Work

Three teams fit this data most directly, and each can run it as a recurring job.

A B2B sales lead at a Los Angeles service company can check the Los Angeles feed each week for new Retail Trade registrations, the leading coded sector there at 15.5%. A business-insurance broker in New York City can watch the Home Improvement Contractor label, which carries 399 records in this capture, and open a review task for each new registration under it. A bookkeeper who onboards new clients in San Francisco can track coded Construction filings, which hold 21.6% of that feed's coded records, and send a setup checklist when a match lands.

US Tech Automations can be configured to watch each feed, route matching records to a sales or service queue, and draft first-touch outreach for review. To see how the sales agents handle that routing, start at the sales agents page.

Source: US Tech Automations Research — computed from the sealed daily business-formation snapshot, October 10, 2026.