This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in furnishing building cleaning and maintenance services, not elsewhere classified, such as window cleaning, janitorial service, floor waxing, and office cleaning.
561720 (Janitorial Services)
The building cleaning and maintenance industry provides services to a wide range of clients—private homes, multifamily residences, such as apartment buildings and housing projects, schools, libraries, museums, nursing homes, hospitals, government offices, hotels/motels and resorts, restaurants, churches and synagogues, community and senior citizen centers, airports, bus stations, railroad stations, marinas, and other commercial buildings and businesses.
In 1998, there were about 58,220 cleaning and maintenance businesses not elsewhere classified in the United States. The industry as a whole generated an estimated $31 billion in sales, an increase of over 14 percent from the previous year. The industry employed 912 million cleaners and janitors in 1999. Of that number, about 20 percent were employed by cleaning and janitorial service companies. About a third of those employed worked on a part-time basis (less than 35 hours a week). The other 80 percent were employed by schools, hospitals, or other institutions or businesses as in-house cleaning staff.
Service industries are an increasingly important element of the American economy. One of the fastest growing service industries is the cleaning and building maintenance business. Some analysts estimate that the number of employees in the industry in the year 2005 could well exceed five million.
With changes in needs and technology, the old view of the janitor as someone who only swept out a basement has changed dramatically. While today's custodians or cleaners may still employ brooms, they also make use of a variety of other machines, tools, and skills to keep buildings clean and well maintained. For the most part, custodians and building maintenance employees work indoors, in heated and air-conditioned environments. Work shifts vary tremendously, and some establishments, such as hospitals, large hotels, or transportation companies may employ such personnel on a round-the-clock basis. Entry-level janitors can earn between $12,500 and $14,000 annually while experienced janitors may earn $15,000 to $20,000 per year, and college-educated managers can earn $37,000 or more.
The types and sizes of cleaning and maintenance businesses range from the single-person enterprise to franchises and large, nationally-recognized companies that employ thousands of people. Smaller companies tend to service residential dwellings primarily because of the fewer demands on resources (employees, skills, and time.)
For the most part, larger companies service commercial buildings, schools, and apartment houses because larger numbers of employees with varied skills are needed to do the job and because fees are higher for such establishments. This facet of the industry has become highly organized; more than 1,400 building service contractors belong to a national organization, the Building Contractors Association.
The number of such service companies has grown over the last few years because they have developed increasingly efficient and economical ways to accomplish cleaning and maintenance tasks. Part of that efficiency results from the ways in which a contractor contracts its services with the specific need of a particular client in mind: individual assignment, crew assignment, specific cleaning assignment, and general assignments.
In individual assignment, one person is responsible for a specific area. That person must know how to do all the different kinds of cleaning required, as well as basic maintenance. In a crew assignment, a team is responsible for an area, usually larger than a single area. Among them, they have all the skills required for the proper cleaning and maintenance required.
Specific cleaning assignments are different in that each member of the team has specific skills for a particular area. The team as a whole performs a wide range of jobs. Finally, the general assignment jobs provide almost limitless variety. There may be enough work for one person or a whole team of people. The responsibilities, as well as how many people will be assigned, vary according to needs.
The top three companies in this industry by sales volume at the end of the 1990s were International Service Systems, Inc. ($2 billion), American Building Maintenance Industries Inc. (ABM) ($629 million), and Unicco Service Company ($522 million). Founded in 1909 by Morris Rosenberg who invested $4.50 in a bucket, mop, sponge, broom, and brush, ABM and its divisions posted sales in 1999 of over $600 million. In addition to the usual janitorial services for owners of commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings, the company offers a wide range of services that includes: cleaning; elevator maintenance; air conditioning, heating, engineering, and energy conservation services; lighting and electrical sign maintenance; building security; parking garage management; and janitorial supplies. One small portion of its business also included pest control. However, since the company's focus had been to provide services to commercial, industrial, or institutional clients, the residential nature of the pest control business seemed inappropriate. ABM therefore sold this division to Terminix in October of 1991.
Two other large cleaning and building maintenance companies in the country are both franchise chains: JaniKing and Service Master. JaniKing had 5,500 units in 1997. ServiceMaster, in business since 1947, had more than 4,306 franchise units in 1997. Both companies offer services that include residential and commercial cleaning services, disaster restoration, and specialized services such as window and carpet cleaning. In addition, Service-Master offers pest control and lawn care, and provides management services to health care facilities, schools, and factories.
In November, 1986, Service Master purchased Terminix International, the nation's second largest pest control company. At the time, the company owned 164 outlets and 150 franchises nationwide. Merry Maids, a home-based cleaning business founded in 1980, came into the Service Master fold, as did a Memphis-area home appliance maintenance and plumbing service with a client list of approximately 400. Then in 1990, Service Master purchased two divisions of Waste Management, Inc., a pest control business and a lawn care service, further diversifying beyond its core building maintenance niche.
By the end of the 1990s, there were 912 million workers employed by this industry, most of whom worked under 30 hours a week for an average wage of $8.68 per hour. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted the residential cleaning industry would have the second largest job growth rate through 2005. In the mid 1990s, a projected 9.4 million households paid a professional to clean their homes (9 percent of all homes).
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