California public works activity, from DIR project registrations
What the public PWC-100 registrations on the DIR Public Works Portal show about where California public works is happening and who is doing it. Aggregates only, refreshed every night.
Data updated 2026-10-18
The short answer
Between June 26, 2026 and October 18, 2026, the WellStanding registry captured 3,548 California public works projects from DIR's public PWC-100 registrations, issued by 1,306 awarding bodies. It is a sample of recent registrations, refreshed every night, not a complete count.
- Most active awarding bodies in the sample: City of Los Angeles, Caltrans, County of Santa Barbara General Services, Procurement Services.
- City and school district projects together are 49% of the sample.
- Every registered project means certified payroll for each contractor on it, filed with DIR at least monthly under Labor Code 1771.4.
The most active awarding bodies
Projects per awarding body in the sample. Each linked name has its own page with the portal and filing rules for that body.
Projects by type of awarding body
| Body type | Projects | Share |
|---|---|---|
| City | 928 | 26% |
| School district | 804 | 23% |
| Public agency | 554 | 16% |
| County | 484 | 14% |
| Water or sanitation district | 228 | 6% |
| University | 198 | 6% |
| State agency | 152 | 4% |
| Community college district | 144 | 4% |
| Transit | 29 | 1% |
| Port | 22 | 1% |
Where the listed contractors are based
Contractor home county from CSLB license records, which is not always the county where the project is. Counts are contractors listed on the registrations in this sample.
| County | Contractors listed | As subcontractors |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 347 | 156 |
| Orange | 259 | 120 |
| San Diego | 245 | 130 |
| Riverside | 173 | 72 |
| San Bernardino | 156 | 62 |
| Alameda | 109 | 46 |
| Sacramento | 105 | 44 |
| Santa Clara | 93 | 40 |
| Fresno | 81 | 40 |
| Contra Costa | 76 | 38 |
| Kern | 72 | 30 |
| San Luis Obispo | 64 | 36 |
Trades on the registrations
License classifications held by the listed contractors. A contractor can hold more than one, so these add to more than the contractor count.
| License classification | Contractors |
|---|---|
| General building (B) | 987 |
| General engineering (A) | 908 |
| Electrical (C-10) | 526 |
| HVAC (C-20) | 222 |
| Plumbing (C-36) | 188 |
| Landscaping (C-27) | 170 |
| Hazardous substance removal (HAZ) | 167 |
| Concrete (C-8) | 150 |
| Painting and decorating (C-33) | 137 |
| Earthwork and paving (C-12) | 120 |
| Roofing (C-39) | 117 |
| Low voltage systems (C-7) | 115 |
How this data is built
- Source. Awarding bodies register public works contracts with DIR on the PWC-100, and DIR publishes the registrations on its DIR Public Works Portal. Our registry collects recent registrations from that portal every night.
- Matching. Contractors named on a registration are matched to the Contractors State License Board's public license data for county and license classification.
- Coverage. The registry holds a sample of recent registrations, not every project DIR receives, and collection paused from July 7 to September 3, 2026, so this page does not publish monthly counts. Use the shares for comparisons and the counts as a floor.
- Privacy. This page publishes aggregates only. No contractor contact details appear here.
Download the tables: california-public-works-activity.csv. Cite as: WellStanding analysis of California DIR PWC-100 public works project registrations, June 26, 2026 to October 18, 2026, https://wellstanding.com/data/california-public-works-activity/.