Federal obligations in all other specialty trade contractors (NAICS 238990)

A residual trade code, not a named craft

Census NAICS 238990 is the catch-all for specialty trade contractors that are not plumbing, electrical, masonry, roofing, or the other named 238 lines. Site work that mixes fencing, scaffolding, sandblasting, wrecking, or specialty finishes can be coded here when the award’s product or service description does not match a tighter trade. The $5,461,962,551.10 total is therefore a residual bucket, not a census of every specialty contractor the government uses.

That residual design matters for searchers who treat the industry page as a vendor list. A firm whose primary commercial NAICS is 238220 or 238210 can still appear under 238990 on a single task order if the contracting officer tagged the action that way. SpendingVault reports the USAspending code on the award, not the contractor’s SAM registration as a whole.

4,276 awards against a $5.46 billion obligation stock

Four thousand two hundred seventy-six awards produced $5,461,962,551.10 in obligations. That is a thinner action count than NAICS lines that run to tens or hundreds of thousands of delivery orders. The mix can include large construction task orders and smaller service calls; the packet does not split them. What the table shows is the tagged total and the award count, not a typical job size.

Obligations move when agencies issue new awards, exercise options, or post modifications. A deobligation reduces the running total. Outlays — Treasury payments against those commitments — are a different USAspending field and are not this $5,461,962,551.10 figure. Reading the industry hub as money already spent will overstate cash and understate remaining liability on open contracts.

How USAspending attaches NAICS 238990

Contract actions in USAspending.gov carry a NAICS code chosen at award. Assistance (grants and cooperative agreements) frequently omit NAICS, so a water or facilities grant that a specialty contractor performs as a subawardee will not add to this industry row. Parent awards, IDIQs, and orders can repeat or change codes across modifications. SpendingVault’s industry page is the contract-side rollup for 238990 only.

The code is a Census industry classification. It is not an FEC employer string, not a SAM “primary NAICS” roster, and not a union craft jurisdiction. Donors who typed “contractor” on a campaign form live on a different site and a different dataset. Cite USAspending.gov via SpendingVault for this $5,461,962,551.10 number.

What the industry table is and is not

The 238990 hub lists recipients, agencies, and award rows that share this NAICS tag. A large obligation is a disclosed commitment. It is not a finding that a project was wasteful, that a small business was passed over, or that a building failed inspection. SpendingVault does not score contractor performance from the dollar total.

Name collisions and UEI changes are ordinary in federal files. Use award IDs on the table, not the industry headline, to tell two companies apart. Prime-only NAICS tagging also means subcontractors who actually pour concrete or hang scaffold may be invisible here if the prime coded a different industry.

Related trades and the assistance gap

Plumbing, HVAC, and electrical contractors sit on their own NAICS pages. Adding those codes to $5,461,962,551.10 would be a recode you must document; it is not this residual total. Construction of structures (237) and building construction (236) are also separate. Open the named trade pages from the all-industries index rather than treating 238990 as “construction.”

Because assistance awards may not carry NAICS, disaster-recovery or facilities grants that fund specialty trades will not appear in the 4,276-award count. For a full picture of a recipient, open the recipient record and read both contract and assistance tabs. This page stays on the contract NAICS 238990 rollup from USAspending.gov. The $5,461,962,551.10 figure does not grow when a grant is posted without a NAICS field, even if a specialty-trade firm performs the work. Researchers who need grant-funded site work must leave the industry table and use recipient or assistance views. That split is a USAspending schema rule, not a SpendingVault filter. Keep 238990 attached to the contract file only.

Questions

How much has the federal government obligated under NAICS 238990?

USAspending.gov contract aggregates on SpendingVault show $5,461,962,551.10 in obligations across 4,276 awards tagged all other specialty trade contractors. The number is obligations, not outlays, and it excludes assistance awards that lack a NAICS code. It is not an FEC occupation total and not a count of every specialty trade firm in SAM.

Does NAICS 238990 include plumbers and electricians?

Census keeps plumbing and HVAC (238220) and electrical wiring (238210) as separate six-digit codes. NAICS 238990 is the residual specialty-trade bucket. A plumber can still appear on a 238990 action if that is the code on the award. The $5,461,962,551.10 headline is only the 238990 tag, from 4,276 awards in the USAspending contract file.

Are these figures outlays or obligations?

They are obligations: legally binding commitments on contract actions. Outlays are payments and are not this $5,461,962,551.10 rollup. Modifications can raise or lower obligations without a matching payment that day. SpendingVault cites USAspending.gov contract NAICS, not Treasury cash reports, for the 4,276 awards on this page.

Why might a grant-funded specialty job be missing?

Assistance awards often do not carry NAICS. A specialty contractor paid through a grant or as a subawardee will not add to the 4,276 contract awards or the $5,461,962,551.10 total. Open recipient pages for mixed contract and assistance activity. This industry page is the contract-side 238990 code only.