Employer research
Investigate businesses by territory, industry and the information available in their records. See what the data supports and where information is missing.
Find the right employers. Start with a better-informed conversation.
PEO Tools is software for independent PEO and insurance brokers. It combines employer research with self-service checks that collect a business owner’s figures and show what needs a closer look before the first call.
Nick Angeli, FounderBuilding employer research and diagnostic software for PEO and insurance brokers
Employer research
- Territory
- Industry
- Recorded size
- Benefits records
- Workers’ comp records
- 20.7 millionBusinesses in the research database
- 2.84 millionWith a recorded size indicator
- 110,740With a health-plan record
Database snapshot: October 11, 2026. Coverage and record dates vary. Recorded size may represent employees, plan participants or an individual worksite.
Who it’s for.
Independent PEO brokers, and insurance and benefits brokers who sell PEOs, workers’ compensation, group health or related employer services.
The producer
The individual broker who uses the research and the diagnostics day to day.
The agency owner or sales manager
Holds the budget and owns the sales process the product fits into.
Junior producers and account managers
Do the first research and qualification before a producer takes the call.
Two problems, one product.
A broker needs to know which employers are worth investigating and what a prospect’s numbers actually show. Those are the two problems I’m building PEO Tools around.
Self-service diagnostics
Give prospects a way to work through a specific workers’ compensation or employer-cost question. Their answers and the calculated findings give you a clearer starting point for the conversation.
Built around your business
The product is being developed for delivery under a broker’s own brand, with the resulting case routed to that broker. The aim is to reduce repeated discovery work while keeping the broker responsible for advice and placement.
Research alone still leaves the first call starting from zero.
Most market-intelligence platforms help you find and research employers. PEO Tools does that and turns the prospect into a prepared case before the first conversation.
The business owner completes a focused diagnostic. The software runs tested calculations, surfaces missing data and gives the broker the findings and context, built for delivery under the broker’s own brand.
| Typical market-research tool | PEO Tools |
|---|---|
| Research and alerts on employers | Research plus self-service diagnostics that produce a prepared case |
| The data stays with the producer | Built for delivery under the broker’s brand, with the case routed to the broker |
| An intelligence layer | A workflow: research, then a diagnostic, then a prepared conversation |
| The producer still does most of the discovery | The business owner does part of the discovery through guided checks |
Less repeated discovery work, a clearer starting point, and the broker still owns the advice and placement.
How it fits your work.
Reduce repeated discovery work while keeping the broker responsible for advice and placement.
- Find the employersFilter the research by territory, industry, size, benefits records and workers’ comp records to a short list worth pursuing.
- Share a diagnosticSend the business owner a check that fits the conversation: workers’ comp audit, group health renewal, commercial auto or the federal 50-employee count.
- The owner answersThe business owner works through the questions in their own time.
- The software calculatesDefined, tested calculations run on their answers. Missing information stays visible.
- You receive the caseThe findings and context arrive before the first live conversation.
- The first call starts informedWalk into the first conversation already knowing what the numbers show and where the gaps are.
A view into the employer market
The research database supports the workflow. Two figures show its depth.
- 20.7 millionbusinesses in the research database.
- 37,998businesses with a recorded workers’ comp policy end date in the next twelve months. Policy end dates are recorded for a small number of states.
Database snapshot: October 11, 2026. Coverage and record dates vary.
Show the six market charts
Selected findings from US employer and market data. Coverage differs by measure, so each chart carries its own definition.
Where are employer businesses concentrated?
Territory planning
Useful when deciding where to focus outreach.
Businesses with a recorded size of 10 to 249
New York-Newark-Jersey City leads with 66,477 businesses, and the ten largest metro areas hold 29% of the 1,086,307 businesses in this population.
About these figures
- Population
- Businesses with a recorded size of 10 to 249 in the 50 states and DC, 1,086,307 in total. The ten metro areas with the most businesses are shown.
- Coverage
- Recorded size may represent employees, plan participants or an individual worksite, and many businesses have no recorded size. Businesses outside a metro area are not shown.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026.
When were these businesses registered?
Business-age segmentation
Helps separate newer businesses from established ones when building a list.
Active businesses with a recorded registration date
2025 is the largest registration year among active businesses with a recorded date, at 868,703; the counts show businesses active today, not registrations filed each year. The hatched bar is the current year to date.
About these figures
- Population
- Active businesses with a recorded registration date: 6,673,534, or 32% of the database. Business applications, registrations and operating employers are different populations, and this chart shows only the last.
- Coverage
- Registration dates exist for a limited set of states, and the two largest account for 94% of the dated businesses. Earlier years are smaller partly because more of those businesses have closed.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026. The current year is partial.
How has the number of employers with plans changed?
Market sizing
Shows how many employers already sponsor a plan you may be asked to compare against.
Employers with a recorded plan, by plan year
Health plans
Retirement plans
Employers with a recorded health plan rose from 49,863 in 2012 to 87,711 in 2024, and employers with a recorded retirement plan from 649,743 to 835,396. Hatched bars are plan years still filling in.
About these figures
- Population
- Distinct employers with at least one recorded health plan, and separately with at least one recorded retirement plan, in each plan year. An employer with both appears in both charts, and each chart has its own scale.
- Coverage
- Health plans with fewer than 100 participants are mostly not recorded, so the health series understates smaller employers.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026. Plan year 2025 is incomplete because records are still arriving.
How are recorded health plans funded?
Offer positioning
Shows how often the conversation starts from an insured or a self-funded plan.
Share of recorded health plans, by plan year
- Self-funded
- Insured
- Insurance and own assets
- Not reported
Among recorded health plans that report a funding method, self-funded plans were 9% in 2024, down from 19% in 2012, while 30% of 2024 plans report no method at all.
About these figures
- Population
- Recorded health plans in each plan year. These are plans, not employers, and an employer can have more than one.
- Coverage
- A growing share of plans report no funding method. They are shown as not reported and are not assigned to a category.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026. Plan year 2025 is incomplete.
Which industries are adding jobs?
Sector prioritization
Points to the sectors where headcount, and the employer costs that follow it, are moving.
Market-wide employment change, 2025 versus 2024
- Health care and social assistance+780K
- Construction+116K
- Arts, entertainment, recreation+62K
- Transportation and warehousing+56K
- Education services+42K
- Information-54K
- Wholesale trade-69K
- Retail trade-88K
- Administrative and support-92K
- Manufacturing-153K
In 2025 versus 2024, health care and social assistance added the most jobs, about 780 thousand, and manufacturing lost the most, about 153 thousand.
About these figures
- Population
- Private-sector employment across the United States, by industry sector. This is a market-wide measure, not a measure of the businesses in the research database, and an industry adding jobs does not mean any one business is hiring.
- Period
- Annual average employment, 2025 versus 2024. The five largest gains and five largest declines among the industry sectors are shown.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026.
When do businesses’ recorded workers’ comp policies end?
Outreach timing
Shows when recorded policies come up, so outreach can be timed once the dates are confirmed.
Businesses with a recorded policy end date, by month
1.4K2.5K2.7K5.4K3.0K3.4K3.8K3.1K3.5K3.9K2.8K2.5K
37,998 businesses have a recorded workers’ comp policy end date in the next twelve months, and January 2027 is the busiest month, with 5,443 businesses. The hatched bar is the current month from the snapshot date.
About these figures
- Population
- Businesses with a recorded workers’ compensation policy end date: 40,227 in all, and 37,998 with an end date in the next twelve months. Each business is counted once, by its recorded end date. An end date does not establish an intention to switch.
- Coverage
- Policy end dates are recorded for a small number of states, and the two largest account for 94% of the records. This is not a national picture.
- Snapshot
- October 11, 2026.
Why I’m building PEO Tools.
My background spans sales, automation and commercial software development. I’ve worked on both building products and getting them into the hands of people who use them. That experience shapes how I approach PEO Tools: start with the broker’s actual work, then build something that makes it easier.
I use Claude Code in development. I’m also exploring Claude for extracting information from business documents and preparing case summaries. Calculations stay in tested code, and missing information stays visible.
PEO Tools is in early product development and market entry. My focus is making the research useful, the diagnostics dependable, and the resulting cases worth a broker’s time.
Pricing: early access.
Currently in early access. The planned model is a simple per-seat subscription that includes the full research database and self-service diagnostics. White-label branding and case routing are planned for higher tiers. Let’s discuss what fits your brokerage.
Per seat
The full research database and the self-service diagnostics, for each producer.
Early access, contact for detailsHigher tier
White-label branding and case routing to your brokerage, as they are built.
Early access, contact for details
Request a walkthrough or early access.
A few short steps. Tell me who you are and what you want, and I’ll reply with the right next step.