An official website of the United States government
The manufacturing sector is part of the goods-producing industries supersector group.
The Manufacturing sector comprises establishments engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products.
Establishments in the Manufacturing sector are often described as plants, factories, or mills and characteristically use power-driven machines and materials-handling equipment. However, establishments that transform materials or substances into new products by hand or in the worker's home and those engaged in selling to the general public products made on the same premises from which they are sold, such as bakeries, candy stores, and custom tailors, may also be included in this sector. Manufacturing establishments may process materials or may contract with other establishments to process their materials for them. Both types of establishments are included in manufacturing.
North American Industry Classification System
The manufacturing sector consists of these subsectors:
This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in manufacturing. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, gross job gains and losses, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.
Data series | Back data |
Feb. 2024 |
Mar. 2024 |
Apr. 2024 |
May 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment (in thousands) |
|||||
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted) |
12,957 | (p)12,953 | (p)12,961 | ||
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted) |
9,053 | (p)9,036 | (p)9,038 | ||
Unemployment |
|||||
3.0% | 3.0% | 2.7% | 2.7% | ||
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands) |
|||||
572 | 549 | (p)510 | |||
292 | 291 | (p)389 | |||
296 | 335 | (p)424 | |||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)
Data series | Back data |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Union membership and representation |
|||||
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
8.6% | 8.5% | 7.7% | 7.8% | |
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
9.4% | 9.3% | 8.5% | 8.6% |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
470 | 419 | 437 | 386 | ||
418 | 402 | 451 | 450 |
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)
Data series | Employment, 2022 |
---|---|
131,600 | |
370,510 | |
262,700 | |
Purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products |
110,710 |
1,050,990 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for manufacturing.
(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)
This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in manufacturing. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.
Data series | Back data |
Jan. 2024 |
Feb. 2024 |
Mar. 2024 |
Apr. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$33.35 | $33.44 | (p)$33.65 | (p)$33.61 | ||
39.8 | 40.0 | (p)40.0 | (p)40.0 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Data series | Back data |
Jan. 2024 |
Feb. 2024 |
Mar. 2024 |
Apr. 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$27.21 | $27.35 | (p)$27.45 | (p)$27.54 | ||
40.2 | 40.5 | (p)40.6 | (p)40.6 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Data series | Wages, 2022 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Hourly | Annual | |||
Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
$17.15 | $17.70 | $35,670 | $36,820 | |
$21.59 | $22.72 | $44,900 | $47,260 | |
$23.22 | $24.44 | $48,310 | $50,840 | |
Purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products |
$33.20 | $35.66 | $69,060 | $74,170 |
$18.64 | $20.32 | $38,780 | $42,270 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).
Data series | Access | Participation | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Back data |
2023 | Back data |
2023 | |
Private industry |
||||
83 | 69 | |||
21 | 15 | |||
82 | 67 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | After 1 year of service | After 20 years of service | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Back data |
2023 | Back data |
2023 | |
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans |
8 | 18 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | Back data |
2023 |
---|---|---|
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits |
||
91 | ||
96 | ||
80 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Private industry |
|||||
12-month percent change |
|||||
4.7% | 4.2% | 3.9% | 3.7% | ||
5.1% | 4.9% | 4.5% | 3.9% | ||
3-month percent change |
|||||
0.8% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.6% | ||
0.9% | 1.4% | 1.0% | 0.6% |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Data series | Private industry | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Compensation component ($ per hour worked) |
Percent of total compensation | |||
Back data |
3rd quarter 2023 | Back data |
3rd quarter 2023 | |
44.04 | 100.0 | |||
29.21 | 66.3 | |||
14.82 | 33.7 | |||
4.17 | 9.5 | |||
1.70 | 3.9 | |||
3.31 | 7.5 |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Data series | Back data |
Median weekly earnings | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
Union membership and representation |
|||||
$936 | $1,008 | $1,033 | $1,102 | ||
$962 | $1,016 | $1,016 | $1,116 | ||
$962 | $1,012 | $1,015 | $1,126 | ||
$933 | $1,008 | $1,036 | $1,098 |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in manufacturing. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.
Data series | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fatalities |
||||
343 | 336 | 341 | 384 | |
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
Data series | 2020 |
---|---|
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers |
|
3.1 | |
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer |
2 |
1.1 | |
0.9 | |
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)
This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction. The import price index reflects the percentage change in prices paid to foreign producers for their goods and services within the U.S., while the export price index measures the percentage change in prices received by U.S. producers for goods and services sold outside the U.S.
Data series | Back data |
Feb. 2024 |
Mar. 2024 |
Apr. 2024 |
May 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
(p)248.361 | (p)249.663 | (p)251.642 | |||
Percent change from previous month |
(p)1.8% | (p)0.5% | (p)0.8% | ||
(r)121.7 | (r)122.1 | (r)122.7 | 122.8 | ||
Percent change from previous month |
(r)-0.1% | (r)0.3% | (r)0.5% | (r)0.1% | |
(r)133.8 | 134.5 | (r)135.4 | 134.8 | ||
Percent change from previous month |
(r)0.6% | (r)0.5% | (r)0.7% | (r)-0.4% | |
(Source: Producer Price Indexes, International Price Program)
This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in manufacturing. Also included in this section is information on productivity and costs, presented as indexes and changes in output per hour and unit labor costs.
Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of establishments |
|||||
385,522 | (p)389,369 | (p)392,738 | |||
40 | (p)46 | (p)74 | |||
24 | (p)24 | (p)24 | |||
70 | (p)70 | (p)74 | |||
Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
With job gains (seasonally adjusted) |
101 | 98 | 96 | 90 | |
With job losses (seasonally adjusted) |
95 | 97 | 99 | 102 | |
Footnotes |
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)
This section presents productivity and related data for the manufacturing sector, presented as the percent change from the previous quarter. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked. Growth in unit labor costs represent the quarterly change in the labor cost of producing one unit of output.
Data series | Back data |
3rd quarter 2022 |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
2nd quarter 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
-2.8 | -3.2 | (r)-2.0 | (r)2.9 | ||
3.3 | -0.5 | 1.5 | (r)-2.1 | ||
0.4 | -3.6 | (r)-0.5 | (r)0.8 | ||
10.8 | 3.2 | (r)2.6 | (r)4.9 | ||
Footnotes |
(Source: Productivity)
Data extracted on: July 23, 2024