General contractor licensing is the least uniform credential on this site. Some states license the contracting business and name an individual “qualifying party” on it; some license an individual; some do not license general contractors at the state level at all and leave it to city, county and township building departments. The states that do license almost always license in tiers — classes defined by the scope of work permitted, by the dollar value of a single contract, or by both at once — so “a contractor licence” is rarely one thing. Arizona publishes eleven general classifications; Virginia’s Class A, B and C are drawn by contract value; Florida separates certified from registered on geography and general from building from residential on trade scope; Nevada attaches a monetary limit to the licence itself.
Each state page below states which shape applies in that state, in the board’s own words, then sets out the licence classes and what each one permits, the experience and examination requirements, the bond, the fees, the renewal cycle, and the statute or administrative code behind them — with the exemptions that decide who does not need a licence, which for this trade is usually a dollar threshold or an owner-builder carve-out.
Coverage currently spans eight jurisdictions: Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. Ohio is included as a negative answer — it issues no state general-contractor licence at all, and its page says so and points to the local building departments that do the licensing. Every figure is verified against official sources and dated. The remaining states are in progress.