RootOptics · the United States

Flat Glass Manufacturing — the public record

Flat Glass Manufacturing · the United States

Where this industry stands

MeasureValue
Net establishment formation, 5yr-1.96%
Standing among all industries15th of 287
Reads asshrinking hard
Signal strength, backtestedρ 0.57 over 4 windows

Among 287 industries, this one sits at the 15th percentile on net establishment formation over 2019-2023 — it is shrinking hard. 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.

The market

MeasureValue
Operators21
People employed1,279
Pay per employee$57,914
What the work isHeavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
Median wage, that occupation$55,450
Licensed in39 jurisdictions

What the public record can and cannot evidence

DimensionWeightEvidencePredicts?
O1 · Demand density and recurrence25evidencedpredictive
O2 · Payment evidence15partialnot backtested
O3 · Licence gate favourability15evidencednot backtested
O4 · Labour availability15evidencednot backtested
O5 · Incumbent weakness10no producernot backtested
O6 · Margin structure10partialnot backtested
O7 · Ceiling10evidencedDESCRIPTIVE ONLY

65 of 100 rubric points are evidenced, 25 partially, 10 have no producer. No total score is rendered from that. PREDICTS is a separate question from EVIDENCE: a dimension can rest on a real sourced figure and have no measured relationship with what happens next.

Can you borrow to buy one

MeasureValue
Acquisition loans approved41
Median loan$1,308,275
Mean rate6.86%
Mean term144 months
Charged off9.1%

9.1% of resolved SBA acquisition loans in this industry were charged off, across 22 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. SBA 7(a) FOIA data, FY2010–FY2025. Loans to acquire an EXISTING business, separated from start-up lending by the SBA's own business-age field. Charge-off is measured on RESOLVED loans only — a loan approved last year has not had time to fail.

What it costs to produce

MeasureValue
Margin on receipts54.7%
Computed asvalue added — receipts less cost of materials
Industry receipts$5.3bn

Computed by the Census Bureau, not by us. Economic Census 2022. Census collects a cost structure for this sector and collects none for most service industries; where it does not, this document shows labour share and refuses to call it a margin.

What firms here actually earn

Revenue band ($000)FirmsShareLabour share of revenue
<1001214.6%29.3%
100-4992125.6%31.5%
500-99956.1%31.6%
1,000-2,49978.5%26.3%
2,500-4,9991012.2%27.3%
10,000-14,99967.3%25.5%
15,000-19,99933.7%29.1%
40,000-49,99944.9%22.7%
100,000+1417.1%14.6%

Payroll is 15.4% of receipts industry-wide across 82 firms. LABOUR SHARE, NOT MARGIN: Census publishes receipts and payroll and never cost of goods, so gross margin cannot be derived and is not claimed here. Enterprise receipts — a firm counted once at its total size, not per location. Census SUSB 2022.

What we do not hold

Gap
licence titles in this scope — none matched 'Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers', though it is licensed in 39 jurisdictions nationally. The title differs locally, or the record is held municipally.
occupation mix for NAICS 327211 — the labour statistics carry no rows at this level, so everything about occupations here, including the defining occupation and its licence gate, is measured at NAICS 327000, a broader grouping. Establishment counts are for 327211 itself.
licence coverage — the register holds 54 of 56 US licensing jurisdictions, and 2,504 of its records carry no jurisdiction at all. A count of 39 is out of 54 searched, not out of 56. The unsearched jurisdictions are not evidence of no licence.
bonding_required_usd — no producer, and not estimated

Stated rather than filled. An absence of match is not an absence of fact.

Verification

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369f9b2d770cecd2127b1057dd54ffc72d4581fbaf159e0798017dccec6b3540

Issued 04 October 2026 at 12:40 UTC · rubric O1.0-20260804

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Computed from United States federal public records. Census County Business Patterns, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the CareerOneStop occupational licence register, Census Business Dynamics Statistics and USASpending. Licence data derives from CareerOneStop, sponsored by the US Department of Labor, ETA.

Research against public records — not investment, legal, tax or accounting advice. No figure here is a prediction about your business. Figures describe an INDUSTRY; a business within it may do better or worse for reasons no public dataset records. Gaps are stated rather than filled: where a dimension has no evidence it is marked absent rather than estimated.

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