Top 10 Skilled Trades Most Broadly Licensed Across US States
PlainHireCheck's ranking of regulated skilled trades by the number of US states (out of 50 plus DC) that require state-level licensing. Server-rendered from a live query against the trades table.
Research period:
Research question
Across the 20 skilled trades catalogued by PlainHireCheck, which carry the broadest licensing footprint, meaning the largest number of US jurisdictions where a state-level license is required to legally perform the trade, and how does that breadth correlate with risk classification and exam requirements?
Methodology
Every number on this page is queried from the dataset currently published by PlainHireCheck at the moment you load it, ranked from highest to lowest and limited to the top 10. The figures are not hand-entered into this page, but they are a source snapshot rather than a live verification of every state record.
Values retain the units and precision in PlainHireCheck's published snapshot. Records with a missing or zero value on the ranking metric are excluded rather than shown as artificial zeros.
State contractor licensing boards publish records on their own schedules, and a board may change a requirement after this snapshot was compiled. Use the linked official board to verify a current requirement before acting on it; the methodology page describes the snapshot and its limits.
Outliers are shown as published, not silently smoothed or clipped, so readers can judge them in context via the source link. Where a state changes its licensing categories or reporting scope between updates, we note it on the methodology page rather than blending incompatible vintages into one ranking.
PlainHireCheck maintains an editorial standards process for how rankings are built, how outliers are handled, and how disputed values are corrected. The byline at the top of this page names the editorial owner accountable for its framing. Use the linked official board to independently verify a current requirement. Corrections, takedowns, or clarifications can be requested through the contact channels in the site footer.
Top 10 Skilled Trades Most Broadly Licensed Across US States
Current published dataset; verify requirements with the official board
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the dataset currently published by PlainHireCheck (10 rows shown). Check the official board for changes after this snapshot.
| # | Trade | Category | States requiring license | Risk level | Exam required (states) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrician | specialty | 51 | critical | 1 |
| 2 | Pest Control | specialty | 51 | high | 1 |
| 3 | Plumber | specialty | 47 | critical | 1 |
| 4 | HVAC Technician | specialty | 40 | high | 1 |
| 5 | General Contractor | general | 36 | high | 1 |
| 6 | Painter | specialty | 36 | low | 0 |
| 7 | Carpenter | specialty | 36 | medium | 0 |
| 8 | Mason | specialty | 36 | medium | 0 |
| 9 | Landscaper | outdoor | 36 | low | 0 |
| 10 | Elevator Mechanic | specialty | 36 | critical | 1 |
Source: US state contractor and trade licensing boards. Figures are queried from PlainHireCheck's published source snapshot; verify a current requirement with the relevant official board.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Electrician, with a value of 51 on the States requiring license column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. The ranking is generated from the published dataset rather than hand-entered page copy; it does not claim to update when an agency changes its record.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (51) and the 10th-ranked record (36) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking are compiled from US state contractor and trade licensing boards. PlainHireCheck serves its published source snapshot through this page; it is not a live agency feed, so the official board remains the source for a current requirement. The methodology page documents the compilation and its limits.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Licensing-breadth counts represent the number of US states (out of 50 plus the District of Columbia) represented in PlainHireCheck's January 2026 compilation snapshot as having a state-level licensing regime for the trade. Trades that are regulated primarily at the municipal or county level, such as residential general contracting in many parts of the Northeast and Midwest, may show a lower state-level breadth than their true regulatory footprint suggests. States with state-level registration regimes that do not require an exam or bond are counted as licensing the trade because consumers and hiring parties can still verify the registration. Some trades operate under specialty endorsements or sub-trade designations that vary by state, and PlainHireCheck consolidates closely related specialties to the parent trade for cross-state comparability. Risk-level classifications (low / medium / high / critical) are editorial screening signals, not regulatory determinations. Confirm a current requirement with the relevant official board.
Secondary cut from the same source
Trades ranked by the number of states that require a written or practical exam as part of the licensing process
Sources
- State licensing boards, primary records aggregated by PlainHireCheck - https://plainhirecheck.com/methodology
- National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies (NASCLA) - https://www.nascla.org/