Where Small Businesses Win Federal Contracts: FY2025 by Industry

In fiscal year 2025 (FY2025), small businesses won $176.2 billion in federal contract obligations. That's 22.5% of the contract dollars USAspending.gov tags by business size. Almost half of that money came from just 10 of the 965 industry codes (NAICS codes) where a small business won anything. In 12 big markets, small firms won most of the dollars. In 25 others, they won less than a dime of every dollar.

This report ranks every NAICS code by small-business dollars and share, using public USAspending.gov data. You can download the data (CSV, every NAICS code). The Small Business Administration (SBA) scorecard grades agencies. This report looks at industries instead, which is how a business owner thinks about the market.

Key findings

• Small-business dollars were flat while the rest grew. Small firms won $176.2 billion in FY2025, about $0.4 billion less than in FY2023 (down 0.3%). Dollars to other-than-small firms rose 5.5% ($31.9 billion) over the same years. The small-business share fell from 23.5% in FY2023 and 24.2% in FY2024 to 22.5% in FY2025.
• The money is concentrated. The top 10 NAICS codes held 49.1% of all small-business contract dollars, and the top 25 held 66.8%. One sector, professional, scientific and technical services (NAICS 54), held 40.6% ($71.4 billion).
• IT services is the biggest small-business market. NAICS 541519, Other Computer Related Services, paid small businesses $17.0 billion, or 66.4% of that code's dollars. That's 9.6% of all small-business contract dollars in FY2025.
• Small firms lead in 12 big markets and barely show up in 25. Of 83 industry codes with $1 billion or more in FY2025 contract dollars, small businesses won more than half in 12. They won less than 10% in 25, led by aircraft manufacturing ($61.2 billion, 2.7% small) and health insurance carriers ($47.6 billion, 0.2% small).
• Construction and consulting shrank for small firms. Small-business dollars in commercial building construction (NAICS 236220) fell $2.0 billion (13.0%) from FY2023. Management consulting (NAICS 541611) fell $1.6 billion (23.1%). Research and development (NAICS 541715) and aircraft parts (NAICS 336413) grew the most.

How much did small businesses win in FY2025?

Contract obligations grew from $746.5 billion in FY2023 to $778.6 billion in FY2025, up 4.3%. The small-business slice didn't grow with them.

Why doesn't this match the SBA scorecard? The SBA reported about $179 billion for FY2025, nearly 28% of the contract dollars it counts toward its goal (27.58%). The SBA leaves some spending out of that base, such as foreign-government purchases and mandatory sources. This report divides by all contract dollars that carry a size flag in USAspending.gov. Both are correct; they answer different questions. Use the SBA's number for goal tracking and this one for sizing a market.

Which industries pay small businesses the most?

These 15 NAICS codes paid small businesses the most in FY2025. The share column shows how much of each code's total went to small firms.

*USAspending.gov marks 541712 as a retired code. Its dollars are on older contracts that still get funded. Newer awards in this field use 541713 or 541715.

Large dollar totals don't always mean a good market for a small firm. Engineering services (541330) paid small businesses $12.0 billion, but that was only 23.0% of the code's $52.3 billion.

Where do small businesses win most of the money?

These markets had at least $1 billion in FY2025 contract dollars, and small businesses won more than half. They're sorted by small-business share.

Two codes over $1 billion are left out of the share rankings because one side had net negative dollars (more money taken back than added). They are 237310, Highway, street and bridge construction, and 541710, an older R&D code. Both are in the downloadable data.

Where do small businesses barely compete?

These markets had at least $5 billion in FY2025 contract dollars, and small businesses won less than 10%. Most are large weapons systems, aircraft, ships, drugs and health benefits.

A low share doesn't mean there's no room for you. Ship building and repairing still paid small businesses $2.6 billion in FY2025, and aircraft parts (336413) paid them $3.2 billion. In these markets, many small firms work as subcontractors to the big primes. Subcontract dollars aren't counted in this report.

Which industries grew or shrank for small businesses?

These codes had the biggest change in small-business dollars from FY2023 to FY2025, among codes with at least $1 billion in small-business dollars in either year.

Biggest gains

Biggest drops

This report shows what changed, not why. Agency budgets, large contract awards and recompetes can all move these totals from year to year.

How do whole sectors compare?

Rolling all codes up to their two-digit NAICS sector shows where small firms make their money.

Construction stands out. It is still the third-largest sector for small firms, but their share fell from 46.2% to 42.8% in two years.

What do set-aside codes show?

USAspending.gov also records whether an award was set aside for small businesses. Only some awards carry this field. In FY2025, 45.9% of contract dollars had any set-aside code, including "no set-aside." The rest had none. Most of the gap is delivery orders under existing contracts: of $434.4 billion in delivery-order dollars, only $29.5 billion carried a "no set-aside" or "small business set-aside" code.

So the figures below count only awards coded with each set-aside. They are far lower than the SBA's program totals, which count all dollars to firms in each program. The SBA reported $24.3 billion to 8(a) firms in FY2025, for example, while the 8(a) set-aside codes total $13.7 billion.

Within these coded awards, 8(a) dollars fell 9.5% from FY2024 to FY2025, to $13.7 billion. Sole-source 8(a) awards fell 12.3%. HUBZone set-aside dollars fell 13.8% from FY2023. The trend matches the SBA scorecard, which reported 8(a) dollars down $1.5 billion in FY2025.

What this means for a small business

• Check the share, not just the size. A $50 billion market where small firms win 1% is harder to enter than a $3 billion market where they win 55%. Look up your NAICS codes in the data file before you build a plan around them.
• Pick codes where small firms already win. Contracting officers set aside work when they expect offers from at least two capable small businesses (the "rule of two"). Codes with a high small-business share usually have a deep bench of small competitors and a steady flow of set-asides. See how to choose NAICS codes.
• In low-share markets, plan to start as a subcontractor. Aircraft, missiles and ships are bought from a few large primes. Those primes still buy parts and services from small firms. See how to become a government subcontractor.
• Watch the shrinking markets. If you sell commercial construction, management consulting or IT systems design, there were fewer small-business dollars in FY2025 than in FY2023. That doesn't make them bad markets. It does mean more competition for each award, so pick your agencies carefully.
• Research before you bid. USAspending.gov is free, and you can run these same queries yourself. Our guide to USAspending shows how. FedReady's free NAICS code pages show spending, top buyers and small-business share for each code, and you can browse open notices in one code, such as open notices under 541519.
• Get free help. An APEX Accelerator counselor can help you read this data for your own business at no cost.

Methodology

All figures come from the public USAspending.gov API (api.usaspending.gov, version 2), pulled on October 10, 2026. Every request and full response is saved, and the data file lists the exact query behind each number.

• Years. Federal fiscal years: FY2023 is October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023; FY2024 is October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024; FY2025 is October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. FY2025 is the latest complete year. The Department of Defense's 90-day reporting delay for FY2025 has long passed, but agencies can still correct records, so totals may shift slightly.
• Contracts only. Award types A, B, C and D: blanket purchase agreement calls, purchase orders, delivery orders and definitive contracts. Grants, loans and the parent vehicles (IDVs) themselves are left out.
• Dollars. Net obligations on contract actions dated within each fiscal year, as the API's spending_by_category and spending_over_time endpoints report them. Deobligations count as negative dollars. Dollars are not adjusted for inflation.
• Small business. The filter recipient_type_names set to small_business, compared with other_than_small_business. This is the size status recorded on each contract action. Share equals small-business dollars divided by small plus other-than-small dollars. The two groups overlap slightly: together they exceed the all-contracts total by $4.6 billion in FY2025.
• Industries. Endpoint /api/v2/search/spending_by_category/naics/, paged 100 rows at a time until no pages were left, once for each size group and year. The NAICS rows add up exactly to the government-wide small-business total ($176.16 billion in FY2025). About $1.1 billion in FY2025 other-than-small dollars had no NAICS code.
• Market size cutoffs. "Big markets" have at least $1 billion in FY2025 contract dollars (83 codes after removing 2 with net negative dollars). The low-share table uses a $5 billion cutoff. The growth tables include codes with at least $1 billion in small-business dollars in FY2023 or FY2025.
• Sectors. Two-digit NAICS sectors, with 31-33, 44-45 and 48-49 combined as the NAICS manual does.
• Set-asides. Filter set_aside_type_codes, one code at a time, on spending_over_time grouped by fiscal year.
• What's not here. Subcontracts, grants, card purchases that aren't reported as contract actions, and the number of companies that won.

How to cite this report

FedReady, "Where small businesses win federal contracts: FY2025 by industry," October 2026, https://www.fedready.us/guides/small-business-federal-contracts-by-naics-fy2025. Data: USAspending.gov API, pulled October 10, 2026.

You're welcome to use the tables with a link back to this page. The full data is free to download as a CSV of every NAICS code or as JSON with every USAspending.gov query.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules and thresholds change, so confirm details on SAM.gov and the official agency sites linked above before you act. FedReady is an independent company and is not affiliated with any government agency.