{
 "api_version": "v1",
 "data": {
  "naics": "541380",
  "label": "Testing Laboratories and Services",
  "scope": "United States",
  "operators": 6526,
  "employees": 147068,
  "pay_per_employee_usd": 76425,
  "made_of": {
   "occupation": "Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers",
   "share_pct": 12.83,
   "concentration_vs_economy": 31.8
  },
  "licence_gate": {
   "occupation": "Industrial Engineers",
   "jurisdictions_licensing": 48,
   "jurisdictions_searched": 54,
   "us_jurisdictions_total": 56,
   "exam_gated_licences": 109,
   "matched_by": "soc",
   "marginal": false
  },
  "labour": {
   "defining_occupation": "Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers",
   "employed_nationally": 22410,
   "median_wage_usd": 48710
  },
  "licensed_occupations": [
   {
    "occ_title": "Engineering Technologists and Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other",
    "share_pct": 2.62,
    "ratio": 58.2,
    "defining": true,
    "states": 50,
    "licences": 559,
    "matched_by": "title"
   },
   {
    "occ_title": "Industrial Engineers",
    "share_pct": 2.65,
    "ratio": 11.4,
    "defining": true,
    "states": 48,
    "licences": 205,
    "matched_by": "soc"
   },
   {
    "occ_title": "Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health",
    "share_pct": 2.92,
    "ratio": 121.1,
    "defining": true,
    "states": 24,
    "licences": 66,
    "matched_by": "soc"
   },
   {
    "occ_title": "Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers",
    "share_pct": 12.83,
    "ratio": 31.8,
    "defining": true,
    "states": 12,
    "licences": 29,
    "matched_by": "soc"
   },
   {
    "occ_title": "General and Operations Managers",
    "share_pct": 4.1,
    "ratio": 1.7,
    "defining": false,
    "states": 23,
    "licences": 46,
    "matched_by": "soc"
   },
   {
    "occ_title": "Project Management Specialists",
    "share_pct": 2.19,
    "ratio": 3.1,
    "defining": false,
    "states": 3,
    "licences": 7,
    "matched_by": "soc"
   }
  ],
  "acquisition_lending": {
   "naics": "541380",
   "business_age": "acquisition",
   "loans": 464,
   "gross_usd": 236529700,
   "guaranteed_usd": 177046475,
   "median_loan_usd": 249347,
   "mean_rate_pct": 6.75,
   "mean_term_months": 129,
   "jobs_supported": 6512,
   "years": "FY2010\u2013FY2026",
   "charge_off": {
    "pct": 3.1,
    "charged_off": 7,
    "resolved": 226,
    "usd": 723151,
    "window": "FY2010\u2013FY2020",
    "read": "3.1% of resolved SBA acquisition loans in this industry were charged off, across 226 loans that have actually reached an outcome. Cohorts from FY2021 onward are EXCLUDED from this rate: a loan approved recently has not had time to fail, and counting it would make every industry look safe."
   },
   "peer_rank": {
    "percentile": 10,
    "peers": 501,
    "rate_pct": 3.1,
    "median_pct": 6.6,
    "read": "10th percentile for charge-off rate among 501 industries with at least 50 seasoned acquisition loans. HIGHER IS WORSE here \u2014 this is the rate at which lenders lost money, not a performance score. Median across all of them is 6.6%."
   }
  },
  "cost_structure": {
   "margin_pct": null,
   "cost_basis": null,
   "receipts_usd": 27932032000,
   "value_added_usd": null,
   "vintage": 2022,
   "read": "Margin computed by the Census Bureau as value added \u2014 receipts less the cost basis named. NULL where Census publishes no cost structure for the sector, which is most service industries; in that case use labour_share_of_receipts_pct and do NOT call it a margin."
  },
  "revenue_distribution": {
   "vintage": 2022,
   "firms": 5226,
   "labour_share_of_receipts_pct": 42.9,
   "bands": [
    {
     "band": "<100",
     "lo": 0,
     "hi": 100000,
     "firms": 601,
     "share_pct": 11.5,
     "cumulative_pct": 11.5,
     "labour_share_pct": 40.1,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "100-499",
     "lo": 100000,
     "hi": 499000,
     "firms": 1487,
     "share_pct": 28.5,
     "cumulative_pct": 40.0,
     "labour_share_pct": 39.5,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "500-999",
     "lo": 500000,
     "hi": 999000,
     "firms": 843,
     "share_pct": 16.1,
     "cumulative_pct": 56.1,
     "labour_share_pct": 40.9,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "1,000-2,499",
     "lo": 1000000,
     "hi": 2499000,
     "firms": 1038,
     "share_pct": 19.9,
     "cumulative_pct": 75.9,
     "labour_share_pct": 39.9,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "2,500-4,999",
     "lo": 2500000,
     "hi": 4999000,
     "firms": 462,
     "share_pct": 8.8,
     "cumulative_pct": 84.8,
     "labour_share_pct": 42.1,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "5,000-7,499",
     "lo": 5000000,
     "hi": 7499000,
     "firms": 216,
     "share_pct": 4.1,
     "cumulative_pct": 88.9,
     "labour_share_pct": 39.3,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "7,500-9,999",
     "lo": 7500000,
     "hi": 9999000,
     "firms": 101,
     "share_pct": 1.9,
     "cumulative_pct": 90.9,
     "labour_share_pct": 41.3,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "10,000-14,999",
     "lo": 10000000,
     "hi": 14999000,
     "firms": 99,
     "share_pct": 1.9,
     "cumulative_pct": 92.7,
     "labour_share_pct": 43.7,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "15,000-19,999",
     "lo": 15000000,
     "hi": 19999000,
     "firms": 63,
     "share_pct": 1.2,
     "cumulative_pct": 94.0,
     "labour_share_pct": 36.8,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "20,000-24,999",
     "lo": 20000000,
     "hi": 24999000,
     "firms": 32,
     "share_pct": 0.6,
     "cumulative_pct": 94.6,
     "labour_share_pct": 42.4,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "25,000-29,999",
     "lo": 25000000,
     "hi": 29999000,
     "firms": 17,
     "share_pct": 0.3,
     "cumulative_pct": 94.9,
     "labour_share_pct": 35.1,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "30,000-34,999",
     "lo": 30000000,
     "hi": 34999000,
     "firms": 18,
     "share_pct": 0.3,
     "cumulative_pct": 95.2,
     "labour_share_pct": 41.4,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "35,000-39,999",
     "lo": 35000000,
     "hi": 39999000,
     "firms": 11,
     "share_pct": 0.2,
     "cumulative_pct": 95.4,
     "labour_share_pct": 40.4,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "40,000-49,999",
     "lo": 40000000,
     "hi": 49999000,
     "firms": 20,
     "share_pct": 0.4,
     "cumulative_pct": 95.8,
     "labour_share_pct": 41.2,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "50,000-74,999",
     "lo": 50000000,
     "hi": 74999000,
     "firms": 36,
     "share_pct": 0.7,
     "cumulative_pct": 96.5,
     "labour_share_pct": 37.0,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "75,000-99,999",
     "lo": 75000000,
     "hi": 99999000,
     "firms": 19,
     "share_pct": 0.4,
     "cumulative_pct": 96.9,
     "labour_share_pct": 37.4,
     "adjusted": true
    },
    {
     "band": "100,000+",
     "lo": 100000000,
     "hi": null,
     "firms": 163,
     "share_pct": 3.1,
     "cumulative_pct": 100.0,
     "labour_share_pct": 45.7,
     "adjusted": true
    }
   ],
   "read": "Firms by RECEIPT SIZE. Labour share is payroll over receipts \u2014 not gross margin, which cannot be derived because Census publishes no cost of goods. Enterprise-level: a firm is counted once at its total size, not per location."
  },
  "standing": {
   "naics4": "5413",
   "percentile": 58,
   "peers": 287,
   "years": [
    2019,
    2023
   ],
   "net_formation_pct": 0.69,
   "band": "roughly in balance",
   "calibration": {
    "rho": 0.57,
    "windows": 4,
    "separation_pp": 42.6
   },
   "read": "Among 287 industries, this one sits at the 58th percentile on net establishment formation over 2019-2023 \u2014 it is roughly in balance. That signal carries a measured rank correlation of 0.57 with the following decade's growth across 4 backtested windows, separating top and bottom deciles by 42.6 percentage points. It describes the INDUSTRY, not a business in it, and it was calibrated against establishment growth rather than returns to an operator."
  },
  "rubric_coverage": {
   "covered": 65,
   "total": 100,
   "partial": 25,
   "absent": 10,
   "rubric": "O1.0-20260804"
  },
  "dimensions": [
   {
    "code": "O1",
    "weight": 25,
    "status": "evidenced",
    "predictive": "predictive",
    "evidence": "6,526 operators employing 147,068 people across 571 counted areas",
    "source": "US Census County Business Patterns"
   },
   {
    "code": "O2",
    "weight": 15,
    "status": "partial",
    "predictive": "not backtested",
    "evidence": "$2,325,755,871 in federal awards to 55 distinct recipients, largest buyer Department of Defense. That is ONE buyer \u2014 federal procurement \u2014 not the private market, so it evidences that this work is paid for at scale, not what a private customer pays.",
    "source": "USASpending.gov \u2014 US federal government work, public domain"
   },
   {
    "code": "O3",
    "weight": 15,
    "status": "evidenced",
    "predictive": "not backtested",
    "evidence": "Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers \u2014 12.83% of employment here, 31.8\u00d7 its share across the whole economy \u2014 is licensed in 48 jurisdictions, 109 of those licences exam-gated. Matched on SOC 17-2112.",
    "source": "CareerOneStop / ARC, U.S. Department of Labor"
   },
   {
    "code": "O4",
    "weight": 15,
    "status": "evidenced",
    "predictive": "not backtested",
    "evidence": "22,410 Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers employed nationally at a $48,710 median wage",
    "source": "BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024"
   },
   {
    "code": "O5",
    "weight": 10,
    "status": "no producer",
    "predictive": "not backtested",
    "evidence": "Per-operator enforcement records exist for some jurisdictions but are not loaded against industries, only against named businesses.",
    "source": "none"
   },
   {
    "code": "O6",
    "weight": 10,
    "status": "partial",
    "predictive": "not backtested",
    "evidence": "Payroll is 42.9% of receipts industry-wide, across 5,226 firms. It does not fall with size (40.1% smallest, 45.7% largest), so scale does not buy margin here. This is LABOUR SHARE, not margin \u2014 Census publishes no cost of goods, so gross margin remains underivable and is not claimed. It is the largest single cost line in most service businesses and the first one a buyer tests against the seller's numbers.",
    "source": "US Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022"
   },
   {
    "code": "O7",
    "weight": 10,
    "status": "evidenced",
    "predictive": "DESCRIPTIVE ONLY",
    "evidence": "1.27 establishments per firm in 2023 across 82,804 firms and 104,894 establishments: some multi-site operators, so a second location is a proven move here. 6,584 firms closed entirely that year, an establishment exit rate of 8.48%.",
    "source": "US Census Business Dynamics Statistics \u2014 public domain"
   }
  ]
 },
 "sources": [
  "US Census CBP 2023",
  "BLS OEWS 2024",
  "CareerOneStop licence register 2024",
  "Census BDS 1978-2023",
  "USASpending 2021-2025"
 ],
 "gaps": [
  "licence titles in this scope \u2014 none matched 'Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers', though it is licensed in 48 jurisdictions nationally. The title differs locally, or the record is held municipally.",
  "licence coverage \u2014 the register holds 54 of 56 US licensing jurisdictions, and 2,504 of its records carry no jurisdiction at all. A count of 48 is out of 54 searched, not out of 56. The unsearched jurisdictions are not evidence of no licence.",
  "bonding_required_usd \u2014 no producer, and not estimated"
 ],
 "licence": {
  "federal_public_domain": "US Census, BLS and USASpending figures are works of the United States Government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. 105. Freely usable, redistributable and resaleable.",
  "occupational_licences": "Licence data derives from CareerOneStop, sponsored by the US Department of Labor, ETA. Supplied on condition it remains publicly available at no cost and without a log-in.",
  "our_analysis": "Rubrics, scoring, backtests and written analysis are 8th Wave Media LLC. The facts underneath them are not.",
  "not_advice": "Research against public records. Not investment, legal, tax or accounting advice, and no figure here is a prediction about your business."
 },
 "attribution": "RootOptics \u2014 ro.8thwavemedia.com"
}