All-trades monthly curve
This table uses the raw issued-date month from each matched permit. Unclassified permit labels stay inside the all-trades count, but are excluded from trade-specific peak/trough claims.
| Month | Permits | Classified | Other | Source years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 340 | 200 | 140 | 2026 |
| February | 387 | 223 | 164 | 2026 |
| March | 551 | 267 | 284 | 2026 |
| April | 575 | 334 | 241 | 2026 |
| May | 505 | 289 | 216 | 2026 |
| June | 464 | 319 | 145 | 2025, 2026 |
| July | 392 | 208 | 184 | 2025 |
| August | 374 | 221 | 153 | 2025 |
| September | 332 | 197 | 135 | 2025 |
| October | 469 | 311 | 158 | 2025 |
| November | 315 | 184 | 131 | 2025 |
| December | 300 | 160 | 140 | 2025 |
Trade peaks and troughs
Only trades with at least 300 classified permits are headlined. The ratio is peak-month permits divided by trough-month permits; every count shown is from the matched source file.
| Trade | n | Peak | Trough | Peak:trough |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician | 1,009 | June (127) | December (46) | 2.8x |
| General Contractor | 876 | April (105) | November (54) | 1.9x |
| Plumber | 383 | April (85) | July (11) | 7.7x |
Use the off-season carefully
The trough month is the documented off-season in this permit-backed sample. It is a useful timing cue when comparing quotes, not a promise that a contractor will discount a specific job.
Electrician: December is the documented off-season month in this permit sample for electrician demand; use that timing when comparing quotes for panel upgrade cost guide or EV charger install cost guide.
General Contractor: November is the documented off-season month in this permit sample for general contractor demand; use that timing when comparing quotes for Real Cost Index permit benchmarks.
Plumber: July is the documented off-season month in this permit sample for plumber demand; use that timing when comparing quotes for water heater cost guide or drain cleaning cost guide.
Methodology and limits
ProFix grouped 5,004 matched public permit records by issued-date month-of-year and classified each permitType with the same permit-to-trade classifier used by the Real Cost Index. The matched file spans 2025-06-04 through 2026-06-03; no missing month or year-month cell is backfilled.
Matched sample, not a census. These are public permit records we confidently matched (>=0.92 match confidence) to 554 contractors listed on ProFix Directory - capped at 100 permits per pro. It is not every permit every contractor has ever pulled, and not every contractor appears. Permit-exempt service work is under-represented.
A matched sample of public building-permit records, not an exhaustive census of all permits. Thin trades are labeled directional-only below the 300-permit floor, so small-N ratios are not headlined.
Suppressed trade cuts
These trades have real matched permits but do not clear the publication floor for a month-of-year peak/trough claim. Counts are shown for transparency; ratios are intentionally omitted.