I've been frustrated over the years by the lack of hard numbers on estimates on the size of the US workforce for pest control. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there were 74,100 pest control workers in 2014 (link). This seems low to me, based on some analysis of the PCT Top 100 list.
The 2016 list (which recorded 2015 sales) showed total revenue of $6.3 billion for the top 100 North American firms. The list also includes numbers of employees. Nearly a quarter (24) of those on the list did not list employee counts. However, using annual revenue divided by employee counts, we find that the average employee = $111,273 in revenue. NOTE: this does not mean that if you hire someone new you'll earn another $111,273, I only use this as a means to estimate the number of employees for those firms that don't list it on the PCT list. For example, if a firm lists sales of $49,000,000 (Company 17 on the list) and we know that the average revenue per employee is $111,273, then we can estimate that Company 17 employs 440 people. This is imperfect, but serves as a useful tool nonetheless.
Using this formula, we see that in 2015 that there approximately 57,098 individuals employed by the top 100 firms, or about 77% of the total in the full marketplace, according to BLS. By some estimates, the U.S. business sector for pest control operations includes about 20,000 firms. So even if every other firm not on the PCT list was a single owner-operator (which we KNOW) is not true, then the BLS number is off by over 2,500 people.
I know we're basing this on some estimates, so it's possible that my analysis (below) could be flawed, but this should highlight that we need more data.
Is it time for a new and complete pest control marketplace survey?
Here at ESA HQ we have closed out 2016 and finalized our record keeping. And though we reported on the "state of the certification programs" during the Business Meeting a few weeks ago, I wanted to give everyone a sense of how we finished the year in terms of ACE and BCE certified individuals.
Let's review the BCE program first. I'm pleased to report that we had another solid year of growth - ending the year with 472 BCEs, a full 20 more than we had on the books at the end of 2015 (growth of 4%). Of those, 385 were full BCEs, 10 were Interns, 77 were Emeritus. BCE has grown annually since 2012.
ACE's growth was even stronger than last year. We recorded 118 more ACEs than we had when 2015 closed out, finishing the year at 1,018. That is a growth rate of 13%! On average, since the program was introduced in 2004, the program has grown every year at an average growth rate of 46% (full disclosure - some of those early years had huge percentage increases, but were less stellar in terms of overall numbers - 2004 had 14 ACEs and 2005 had 45 ACEs, a 165% jump). But, of note, ACE has grown every year.
Included in the numbers above for ACE are 14 ACE-International individuals. ACE-I was introduced in October 2014, but we did not have our first applicant pass until February 2015. We finished 2015 with a total of 5 ACE-I's and our 2016 total of 14 is thus 9 more than the year before, or a jump of about 180% (see what I mean about percentage increases!).
Also of interest, we had 10 people who hold both the ACE and BCE!
We hope that you continue to maintain your ACE and BCE. These certification programs help to build the professionalism of the industry and showcase our professionalism for the world.
Wear your ACE and BCE logos with pride! If you need a copy of the logo for your website, business cards, or email signature, please contact ace@entsoc.org or bce@entsoc.org.
On Wednesday the 21st of December, the ESA Certification Corporation hosted its second-annual virtual business meeting. As we posted on this blog last year for the 2015 Business Meeting, the annual meeting switched from a live meeting held in conjunction with the ESA Annual Meeting to this format in an effort to boost its reach, attendance, and staying power (by virtue of a recorded webinar).
We had 56 people register for the webinar and 31 who actually attended it. While this is a slight decrease from last year's 37 attendees, it remains a strong improvement over previous in-person meetings.
Dr. Zia Siddiqi, BCE (2017 Chair of the Certification Board (CB)) presided over the meeting with additional commentary provided by Forrest St. Aubin, BCE-Emeritus (2016 Chair of the CB).
The webinar is live on the ESA YouTube channel and can also be accessed by clicking on the video below. Selected questions that were submitted to the webinar that we were unable to answer during the session are also addressed below the video.
Questions and comments submitted during the webinar that were not addressed during the live event:
Question: Is there an ACE award application online? If so, where do I find it?
The ACE Award site is on the ESA Awards site. It can be found here: www.entsoc.org/awards/ace-professional-award.
Question: Will hiring a new certification manager affect our relationship with Chris Stelzig?
Yes, but only to the extent that the new manager will take over the daily operations of the program. Stelzig will continue to manage the program and oversee all activities, including attending some meetings, but the new manager will soon become a familiar face at many pest management conferences and meetings in the United States and around the world.
Question: RE nominating persons for an ACE Award -- It might be a good idea to involve the editorial staffs of Pest Control Technology (PCT) Magazine and PMP magazine, as well as appropriate NPMA faculty/staff members, to help promote the choice and submittal of ACE-credentialed co-worker and colleague names within the structural pest management industry.
Agreed! In the past we have used our social media platforms, our industry partners (like NPMA) and ESA's regular communication vehicles like eNews to distribute announcements. All ACEs and BCEs are encouraged to watch their inboxes for the awards announcements and distribute to their networks.
Question: Maybe ESA can explore a special registration option for ACE professionals who would like to attend Annual Meeting or Branch Meetings for continuing education without being ESA members.
Actually, ACEs already enjoy a discounted rate to attend the ESA Annual Meeting. It is not quite as steep of a discount as ESA members enjoy, but ... hey, it's an ESA membership meeting, what do you expect?
Question:I suggest that serious consideration be given to having webinars in specific areas that could also serve as educational resources for ACE and BCE. There are a lot of members who are academics and may have good material that could be presented online.
Thank you for the suggestion. We have investigated this option in the past and would still consider it for future expansion and resources that we can offer to applicants.
