By Rockford Dock Door Repair
Last verified: September 15, 2026

Manufacturing Statistics by State: Jobs, Concentration, and Change

This publication is part of the site's research and reference hub, which contains the separate Northern Illinois permit, code, and standards directory.

What are the key manufacturing statistics by state?

Only four states — Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin — appear in both manufacturing’s job-count top ten and its nonfarm-employment-share top ten. That is a calculation from preliminary, seasonally adjusted July 2026 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, not a ranking of which state’s manufacturing sector is better. BLS state employment release

1. Only four states — Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin — rank in both the top ten for manufacturing jobs and the top ten for manufacturing’s share of total nonfarm employment, July 2026 (Rockford Dock Door Repair Research calculations from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
2. Indiana has the highest manufacturing employment share among the 50 states: 15.74% of nonfarm payroll jobs, or an estimated 512,000 of 3,252,200, July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
3. California has the most manufacturing jobs — an estimated 1,201,900 — and ranks 33rd on manufacturing’s share of its nonfarm job base, July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
4. Twenty-nine of the 50 states move ten or more places between the manufacturing job-count ranking and the nonfarm-employment-share ranking; the median absolute move is 11 places and the largest is 32, July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
5. Only three states rank identically on manufacturing job count and manufacturing’s nonfarm employment share: Michigan (4th), Missouri (16th) and Louisiana (31st), July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
6. Manufacturing employment changes were positive in 20 states, negative in 26 and rounded to 0.0% in four states between July 2025 and July 2026, when percentages are displayed to one decimal place (calculated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics seasonally adjusted estimates; July 2026 preliminary). BLS
7. Ohio had the largest estimated net manufacturing job increase of any state over the year — 13,200, or 2.0% — July 2025 to July 2026 (calculated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics seasonally adjusted estimates; July 2026 preliminary). BLS
8. California had the largest estimated net manufacturing job decline of any state over the year — 12,500 jobs, or 1.0% — July 2025 to July 2026 (calculated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics seasonally adjusted estimates; July 2026 preliminary). BLS
9. Manufacturing accounts for at least 10% of nonfarm payroll jobs in 13 states and under 5% in 10 states, July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS
10. The ten largest states by manufacturing employment account for 51.3% of the arithmetic sum of the 50 state manufacturing estimates; the top five account for 32.1%, July 2026 (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates; these are not shares of BLS’s independently estimated national total). BLS
11. National manufacturing employment averaged about 12,632,000 in 2025, down from 12,873,000 in 2023 — a decline of about 241,000 jobs between the annual averages (calculated from the 12 monthly seasonally adjusted observations in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics series CES3000000001 for each year, with averages and the change rounded to the nearest 1,000 jobs). BLS national series
12. National manufacturing employment rose by an estimated 16,000 in August 2026 and was up 58,000 from a low point in December 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted Employment Situation estimates, released September 4, 2026; August preliminary). BLS national release
13. The arithmetic sum of the 50 state manufacturing estimates for July 2026 is 12,546,700 jobs — not the BLS national estimate. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the national series independently and cautions that adding state estimates accumulates state-level error (preliminary, seasonally adjusted state inputs). BLS technical note and Table 3
14. BLS’s August 28, 2026 preliminary state benchmark release covers March 2026 total nonfarm employment, not a replacement set of July manufacturing figures. Final state and metropolitan benchmark revisions are scheduled for March 2027 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). BLS benchmark release
15. Illinois had an estimated 571,000 manufacturing jobs in July 2026 — 9.24% of its nonfarm payroll jobs — ranking 5th by job count and 17th by employment share (calculated from preliminary, seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates). BLS

The monthly state comparison is July 2026, preliminary and seasonally adjusted. National monthly figures, annual averages, occupational statistics and Economic Census figures carry their separate reference periods and definitions. Last verified September 15, 2026.

Contents

Manufacturing employment by state, July 2026 · What this comparison shows and what it doesn’t · How we built this table · Which states appear in both top tens · Highest manufacturing employment share · Where the two rankings diverge · Change over the year · Why the states don’t sum to the national number · What makes a state manufacturing figure go wrong · What counts as a manufacturing job · Shipment value versus employment · Illinois and the Rockford region · Recent national and state changes · Limitations · Dataset download · How to cite this page · Frequently asked questions · Sources

What is manufacturing employment in each state in July 2026?

This table holds every state’s manufacturing job estimate, the total nonfarm employment it is measured against, manufacturing’s share of that total, both rankings, and the change from a year earlier. July 2026 values are preliminary, seasonally adjusted estimates published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on August 21, 2026. The share column is manufacturing payroll employment divided by total nonfarm payroll employment in the same state and the same month — not share of residents, not share of the labor force, and not share of state GDP. BLS state employment release

Two notes on reading this table. Rankings use unrounded shares, which is why Rhode Island (7.78362%) ranks 27th and Oklahoma (7.78353%) ranks 28th despite displaying the same rounded figure. A change shown as 0.0% is a rounded percentage, not proof that employment held exactly steady — Wisconsin’s estimated −100 jobs is a decline in the published estimate that vanishes at one decimal place. BLS inputs

Dataset: CSV · JSON · Frozen source inputs. Contents, units and version information appear in the download section; attribution details identify the exact snapshot.

The District of Columbia, separately

The District of Columbia is excluded from the state rankings above so that the tables describe 50 comparable units. Its figures appear in the same BLS table and are reproduced here for completeness. BLS state employment release

The compact DC table omits a percentage-change column. The underlying estimates are 1,100 jobs in July 2025 and 1,000 in July 2026, producing a calculated decline of 9.1%; the CSV and JSON include it, with DC excluded from state ranks and summaries. The small employment base and 100-job source precision belong alongside that percentage. BLS inputs

What does this comparison show, and what doesn’t it show?

The main table compares one measure — payroll jobs in manufacturing — across 50 states in a single month, alongside the denominator each share is calculated from. It shows scale, concentration, and one year of change. It does not rank states by output, wages, exports, factory count, productivity, or business climate, and it does not establish why any state’s numbers moved. BLS input definitions

A manufacturing job-count list answers one question — which states have the most manufacturing payroll jobs. Rank the same 50 states by manufacturing’s share of nonfarm employment and only four land in both top tens: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. California has the largest manufacturing workforce by this payroll measure and ranks 33rd on concentration. Iowa is 23rd on job count and 3rd on concentration. Twenty-nine of the 50 states move ten or more places between the two lists. Those comparisons come from the same July 2026 BLS table. BLS inputs; calculations shown here

Two states can be described accurately and completely differently depending on which measure you pick. California has more manufacturing payroll jobs than any other state and a manufacturing sector that is a smaller part of its nonfarm job base than in 32 other states. Both statements come from the same dataset. Neither is a judgment about which state is doing better. BLS inputs

“Dependence” is a stronger interpretation than this concentration measure supports. A high manufacturing share tells you that a large fraction of a state’s nonfarm payroll jobs sit in one sector. It does not tell you whether those jobs are stable, well paid, growing, or at risk. Those are separate questions that need separate evidence.

How did we build and check this table?

We transcribed Table 3 of the BLS “State Employment and Unemployment — July 2026” release and computed every derived state column from those published values with the script supplied alongside the dataset. We did not model additional employment values or use a secondary compilation; the underlying BLS observations are themselves statistical estimates. The checks below and the frozen inputs make the arithmetic reproducible. BLS source and estimation methods

What we collected, and when. On September 15, 2026 we checked the manufacturing and total nonfarm source values directly against BLS Table 3, “Employees on nonfarm payrolls by state and selected industry sector, seasonally adjusted.” The frozen state/DC input contains manufacturing for July 2025, May 2026, June 2026 and July 2026, plus total nonfarm employment for July 2025 and July 2026. The release is USDL-26-1412, dated August 21, 2026. Puerto Rico’s corresponding inputs are kept separately in the script and JSON, outside every state/DC summary; the U.S. Virgin Islands manufacturing cells are not published seasonally adjusted and were not transcribed as zeros. Archived BLS release

What we calculated. Four formulas establish the comparison, applied uniformly:

Manufacturing share (%)  = manufacturing jobs ÷ total nonfarm jobs × 100
Jobs rank                = rank of manufacturing jobs, largest first
Share rank               = rank of the unrounded manufacturing share, largest first
Rank gap                 = jobs rank − share rank

A positive rank gap means a state places higher on concentration than on job count. The annual-change columns use these additional formulas:

Year-over-year job change = July 2026 manufacturing jobs − July 2025 manufacturing jobs
Year-over-year change (%) = year-over-year job change ÷ July 2025 manufacturing jobs × 100

How we handled edges. Rankings use exact, unrounded shares; displayed shares are rounded to two decimals. An exact tie receives a shared rank, with the next rank skipped; a tie in a rounded display does not. Percentage changes are computed from the published job levels and displayed at one decimal; a value that rounds to zero is displayed as 0.0%, not −0.0%. DC is excluded from all state rankings and from the 50-state sum, while an explicitly labeled 51-jurisdiction check includes it. Puerto Rico is excluded from both universes. Source coverage and published precision

Job estimates keep the source’s precision of 100 jobs — writing 1,201,900 instead of 1,201.9 thousand changes the display unit, not the accuracy of the underlying estimate. The script uses integer job values and exact fractions internally so that binary rounding and rounded display columns cannot decide a state’s rank.

That last check is worth a sentence on its own. Counting signs in published job levels and counting signs in rounded percentages give different answers because Wisconsin’s estimated decline rounds to 0.0%. “Four states at a rounded 0.0%” is accurate; “four states with no change in published job levels” is not. BLS inputs

We did not use an API. We read the published table and froze the transcription, which means the numbers here can be checked against the source by eye. Reproducing our arithmetic and independently validating our transcription are two different tasks, and the frozen input file makes both possible.

Separate sources stay separate. The Illinois and Rockford annual tables come from BLS’s annual state/area table, not the monthly state release. National annual averages are our arithmetic means of the 12 monthly seasonally adjusted CES3000000001 observations for each year, with displayed averages and their difference rounded to the nearest 1,000 jobs; they are not a separately retrieved BLS annual-average field. The 2022 shipment values come from the Census Bureau’s own Economic Census analysis and retain its published rounding. All three supplements, their input observations and their source URLs are included in the downloads. BLS annual state/area table; BLS national series; Census shipment benchmark

Local share comparison. Rockford’s 2025 annual manufacturing share is 24,300 ÷ 144,300 × 100 = 16.84%; Illinois’s is 568,500 ÷ 6,155,900 × 100 = 9.24%. Dividing the unrounded Rockford share by the unrounded Illinois share produces about 1.82, displayed in the text as roughly 1.8 times. No monthly and annual observations are mixed in that calculation. BLS annual inputs

Which states appear in both top tens?

Four states — Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin — rank among the ten largest manufacturing employment totals and among the ten highest manufacturing shares of nonfarm employment. The other six slots on each list are filled by states outside the other top ten, using July 2026 preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS estimates. BLS inputs; our two-rank comparison

The two top tens look like this:

Bold indicates a state appearing on both lists.

The overlap reflects both the manufacturing numerator and the size of the nonfarm employment denominator. Indiana has an estimated 512,000 manufacturing jobs in a 3.25-million-job nonfarm base. California has more than twice as many manufacturing jobs in a nonfarm job base about 5.6 times as large. This is a comparison of payroll employment, not the dollar size of the two economies. BLS inputs

This is not a new idea. BLS itself has published state manufacturing concentration comparisons. What this page adds is the July 2026 snapshot, the two rankings placed side by side with the denominator visible, and the arithmetic in a file you can open. Earlier BLS comparison

Which states have the highest manufacturing employment share?

Indiana leads at 15.74% of nonfarm payroll jobs, followed by Wisconsin at 15.06% and Iowa at 13.45%, using July 2026 preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS estimates. Thirteen states are at or above 10%. Ten are below 5%, with Hawaii lowest among the states at 1.96%. BLS inputs; calculated shares

Concentration and job count tell different stories because state payroll employment bases are different sizes. Iowa’s estimated 212,900 manufacturing jobs are fewer than one-quarter of Texas’s 979,700. In Iowa, manufacturing represents more than one nonfarm payroll job in eight. BLS inputs

The thirteen states at or above 10% are Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Minnesota. The ten below 5% are Hawaii, New Mexico, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Maryland, New York, Nevada, Florida and Colorado. The gap between the top and bottom of the state share range is a factor of about eight. BLS inputs; calculated shares

Where do the two rankings diverge most?

Twenty-nine of the 50 states move ten or more places between the July 2026 rankings, and nine move twenty or more. The largest absolute move is 32 places, which happens three times — California, Florida and New York all rank higher on manufacturing job count than on manufacturing’s nonfarm employment share. Only Michigan, Missouri and Louisiana rank identically on both. Calculations from preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS inputs

Rank gap is jobs rank minus share rank; a positive number means the state ranks higher on concentration. This is a selected comparison, not every state with a large gap.

The full rank gap for every state is in the downloadable dataset. Across all 50 states the median absolute move is 11 places. BLS inputs; calculated rank gaps

These are descriptive calculations on point estimates. A rank difference is not evidence that two states’ estimates are statistically distinguishable, and the gap says nothing by itself about growth, wages, or the health of any state’s manufacturing base. BLS estimate-uncertainty guidance

How did manufacturing employment change over the year?

Manufacturing employment changes were positive in 20 states, negative in 26 and rounded to 0.0% in four between July 2025 and July 2026 when displayed to one decimal place. Ohio had the largest estimated net gain, 13,200 jobs, and California the largest estimated net decline, 12,500. Across all 50 states the arithmetic net is −20,700 jobs; including DC makes it −20,800, neither of which is the independently estimated national change. Calculations from seasonally adjusted BLS estimates; July 2026 preliminary

Ranked by percentage rather than by count, the order changes. Connecticut had the largest estimated percentage increase at 3.1%, ahead of Minnesota at 2.6% and Idaho at 2.4%. Nebraska had the largest estimated percentage decline at 4.9%, ahead of Delaware at 4.4% and Oregon at 3.6%. Dividing by a different-sized starting employment base changes the comparison; these lists do not establish that the differences between states are statistically significant. BLS inputs and uncertainty guidance

What a 0.0% change actually means

Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia show no change in the published job levels — the July 2025 and July 2026 estimates are identical to the nearest 100 jobs. Wisconsin is different: it lost an estimated 100 jobs, which works out to approximately −0.02% and rounds to 0.0% at one decimal place. BLS inputs

That distinction matters if you are quoting a number. “Four states at a rounded 0.0%” and “three states with equal published job estimates” describe different counts. Neither means a state’s factories held exactly steady. These are statistical estimates presented at 100-job precision; sampling and other estimation error are additional to display rounding, so the true change is not confined to a rounding interval. BLS technical note

One year is also not a full trend. A single July-to-July comparison cannot by itself distinguish a sustained turning point from temporary movement, and this page does not present it as one.

Why doesn’t the sum of the states equal the national number?

BLS estimates national manufacturing employment independently from the state series and cautions that adding state estimates accumulates state-level error. The arithmetic sum of the 50 state manufacturing estimates for July 2026 is 12,546,700 jobs; it is a calculation, not BLS’s national estimate. The national series reported 12,622,000 for July 2026 in the September 4 release, with July still preliminary in that release. BLS state technical note; BLS national Table B-1

A state-table total and the national Employment Situation figure are not required to match. The discrepancy alone does not establish a transcription error. BLS explains that the state procedures are designed to produce estimates for individual states; their errors accumulate in a sum and produce an aggregate with a relatively large and volatile error structure. The 50-state arithmetic check is therefore labeled as exactly that, not promoted to a national count. BLS state technical note

The practical rule: the independently estimated national series supplies a national number, the state table supplies state numbers, and one should not be substituted for the other.

What makes a state manufacturing figure go stale or wrong?

Revisions, release-calendar gaps and seasonal-adjustment mismatches can each change how a state manufacturing figure is interpreted. July 2026 manufacturing estimates are preliminary, a missing news release is not necessarily a missing payroll observation, and adjusted and unadjusted observations must not be mixed in a like-for-like comparison. All three issues can be checked against the BLS source and its technical notes. BLS state release; November 2025 release and collection note

Preliminary estimates and benchmark revisions are different things

BLS benchmarks its survey-based employment estimates each year against comprehensive employment counts drawn primarily from state unemployment-insurance tax records through the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The August 28, 2026 preliminary benchmark publication reports March 2026 total nonfarm employment revisions for all 50 states, DC and large metropolitan areas. It does not publish replacement July 2026 manufacturing estimates. BLS preliminary benchmark release

Final benchmark revisions for state and metropolitan series are scheduled with the January 2027 state release in March 2027. The August 28 notice says that process will cover not-seasonally-adjusted observations from April 2025 through December 2026, seasonally adjusted observations from January 2022 through December 2026, and selected earlier historical revisions. Those are revision windows, not a claim that every printed value will change. BLS preliminary benchmark release

The July 2026 observations on this page are subject to routine and benchmark revision. A preliminary label belongs with the data period, and the release vintage belongs with the source. An upcoming revision is a reason to preserve the snapshot and check the new release — not a reason to overwrite this file silently or to assert that every estimate is certain to move. BLS state release; benchmark timetable

An unpublished release is not a missing payroll month

The October 2025 State Employment and Unemployment news release is listed as not published in the BLS archive. That does not mean October manufacturing payroll observations are absent from the state series. BLS release archive

The November 2025 state release, issued January 7, 2026, includes October establishment-survey estimates. BLS explains that some October employer responses arrived electronically during the shutdown and others were collected after reopening, with the collection period extended; it did not change the October establishment-survey reference period, estimation methods or seasonal-adjustment methods. BLS November 2025 release

A missing household-survey observation and an unpublished news release are not proof of a missing CES payroll estimate. A monthly state manufacturing series should be checked against the payroll data themselves, not given an interpolated October value merely because the release calendar has a gap. BLS November 2025 collection note

Seasonally adjusted is not the same as unadjusted

Seasonal adjustment removes estimated recurring within-year patterns so that month-to-month comparisons are less affected by those patterns. Unadjusted CES observations are still statistical estimates, not raw counts of every payroll job. The selected state industry table used here is explicitly seasonally adjusted. BLS state release and technical note

Comparing an adjusted value for one state to an unadjusted value for another mixes methods as well as places. The monthly state comparison and national monthly series on this page are seasonally adjusted; the Illinois and Rockford annual tables are separately labeled unadjusted annual averages, and occupational, wage and shipment statistics retain their own program definitions. BLS state release; annual state/area table; national series

What counts as a manufacturing job?

In the state payroll table, a manufacturing job is a payroll position at an establishment classified in NAICS sectors 31–33 — the North American Industry Classification System’s manufacturing sectors. They include food, textiles, wood, paper, chemicals, plastics, metals, machinery, electronics and transportation equipment manufacturing, but not all goods-producing industries: construction and mining are separate. The measure is jobs at workplaces, not unique people, companies or buildings. BLS manufacturing classification; state payroll definitions

Jobs, workers, establishments, and companies

These four units answer different questions and cannot be substituted for one another.

• Jobs are payroll positions. Someone on two employer payrolls is counted on each payroll. This is what the employment tables on this page measure. BLS payroll definitions
• Workers are people. A unique-person count and a payroll-position count are different measures; resident-worker estimates also use a different geography from workplace-based payroll estimates. BLS survey definitions
• Establishments are operating locations. A firm with four separate plants can have four establishments. Census establishment definition
• Companies are firms or enterprises and can own multiple establishments. Four plants under one enterprise do not automatically mean four companies. Census glossary

A statement about “manufacturing companies” needs a firm-level count, a statement about manufacturing establishments needs an establishment count, and neither can be supplied by this payroll-job table. The data unit belongs beside the number.

Place of work, not place of residence

Payroll employment is counted where the establishment sits. Someone who lives in one state and works at a plant across the line is counted in the state where the plant is. That matters in metropolitan areas that straddle a border, and it means payroll employment and resident employment are not interchangeable at any geography. BLS survey definitions

Production occupations are not the manufacturing industry

The two categories overlap without matching: an occupation describes the work performed, while an industry classifies the establishment’s activity. BLS publishes both kinds of statistics through different programs. BLS manufacturing industry page; Rockford occupational report

For example, a machinist on a hospital’s payroll can hold a production occupation without holding a manufacturing-industry job. An accountant on the payroll of a manufacturing-classified auto plant can hold a manufacturing-industry job without holding a production occupation. The examples concern the establishment on whose payroll the person is counted, not simply the building where work happens. BLS industry classification; payroll definitions

The distinction is visible in a manufacturing-heavy region. In the Rockford, Illinois metropolitan area, BLS estimated 17,580 production-occupation jobs across industries in May 2023 — a concentration 2.2 times the national rate — with computer numerically controlled tool operators employed at 8.1 times the national rate and machinists at 6.5 times. Those are occupational employment estimates within the OEWS program’s coverage, not a census of every employer and not the same universe as the metro’s manufacturing-industry employment. They should not be used as substitutes for one another. BLS Rockford occupational report, May 2023

Do shipment-value rankings match employment rankings?

Not in the two separately dated comparisons shown here: the Census Bureau’s 2022 Economic Census benchmark puts Texas first in manufacturing shipment value at $808.0 billion, ahead of California at $656.1 billion, while July 2026 BLS payroll estimates put California ahead of Texas by 222,200 manufacturing jobs. Shipment value and employment measure different things, and these particular observations also come from different years. They must not be presented as a same-period test of employment against output. Census shipment benchmark; BLS state employment inputs

Shipment value is a dollar measure of shipments, not a count of physical shipments. It is also not manufacturing GDP: BEA defines industry GDP as value added, or gross output minus intermediate inputs. The two tables do not establish which manufacturing subsectors caused Texas’s or California’s positions, so no causal explanation is assigned to the difference here. Census shipment benchmark; BEA value-added definition

Employment count, employment share and shipment value are three different measures. Which one belongs in a given sentence depends on what that sentence is claiming — and its year belongs with it.

Where does Illinois rank, and what does the Rockford region show?

Illinois had an estimated 571,000 manufacturing jobs in July 2026, the fifth-largest state total, representing 9.24% of nonfarm payroll employment and ranking 17th on concentration. It added an estimated net 2,100 manufacturing jobs over the year, one of 20 states with a positive change in the published levels. The separately dated annual data show Rockford metro’s manufacturing employment share above the statewide share in 2025. BLS monthly state inputs; BLS annual local inputs

Illinois in the 50-state comparison

Illinois’s manufacturing job-count rank and employment-share rank are 12 places apart. Its nonfarm employment denominator includes other industries, so a large manufacturing payroll can coexist with a lower manufacturing share. The state table does not isolate which Chicago-area industries explain that denominator. BLS monthly state inputs

The Rockford metropolitan area, 2023–2025

The Rockford, Illinois metropolitan area covers Winnebago and Boone counties. On annual averages, manufacturing accounted for an estimated 16.84% of the metro’s nonfarm payroll employment in 2025 — roughly 1.8 times the statewide share in the same year. BLS Rockford geography definition; BLS annual inputs

Two other dated figures place the region without being manufacturing-industry estimates. In May 2020, production occupations accounted for 16.4% of employment in the Rockford-area occupational survey against 6.1% nationally. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the average weekly wage across all industries in the Rockford area was $1,226, against $1,569 nationally, in the BLS summary updated July 9, 2026. Neither the older occupational share nor the all-industry wage is a current manufacturing wage or employment-share estimate. BLS May 2020 occupational report; BLS Rockford summary, page 1

Winnebago County: not included in this edition

Winnebago County manufacturing figures are not published here because verification against a primary-source county extract has not been completed. The Rockford metropolitan-area figures above cover two counties — Winnebago and Boone — and must not be read or quoted as county figures. BLS Rockford geography definition

A county manufacturing share would need its numerator and denominator drawn from the same program, the same period, the same geography and the same ownership coverage, with any disclosure-suppression flags carried through. We would rather publish nothing than publish a metro number with a county label on it.

What do recent national and state employment changes show?

BLS reported that national manufacturing employment rose by an estimated 16,000 in August 2026 and was up 58,000 from a low point in December 2025, with machinery and fabricated metal product manufacturing continuing to trend up. That monthly upturn followed a decline in the calculated national annual averages from about 12,873,000 jobs in 2023 to 12,632,000 in 2025. The annual averages are means of the 12 seasonally adjusted monthly observations, rounded to the nearest 1,000 jobs; August 2026 is preliminary and is later than the July state comparison. BLS August release; BLS national monthly series

The state data show an uneven July-to-July pattern, not the geographic distribution of the national August increase. Twenty states had positive changes in published manufacturing job levels, 27 had negative changes, and three had equal estimates at published precision; at one decimal place, the percentage signs become 20 positive, 26 negative and four rounded to 0.0%. BLS state inputs

The positive net changes are concentrated: Ohio, Minnesota, Washington, Connecticut and Florida together account for 35,800 of the 56,900 jobs in the sum of positive state net changes — about 63%. That denominator is the sum of net increases in the 20 states that gained, not every job created at manufacturing establishments and not a national gross-job-gains measure. The states with negative changes include North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon and Nebraska. BLS state inputs; calculations in the downloadable JSON

We are not attributing any of this to tariffs, reshoring, automation, interest rates, or any individual employer. Those are causal claims, and establishing them requires evidence this dataset does not contain. What the sources support is a recent national monthly upturn after lower annual averages, alongside a separate state comparison with mixed year-over-year changes — measured in estimates that remain subject to revision. BLS national release; national series; state release

What are this dataset’s limitations and omissions?

The main comparison uses statistical estimates of manufacturing payroll jobs, subject to revision, and it measures a narrower thing than the phrase “manufacturing statistics” suggests. Its derived shares and ranks do not establish output, wages, causation or statistical significance. The separate historical and regional supplements retain their own periods and coverage. BLS state definitions and uncertainty guidance

Estimates, not exact headcounts. The BLS employment values are statistical estimates with sampling and other estimation error. Ranks built on close estimates can reorder on revision, and a one-place difference is not by itself evidence of a statistically meaningful difference. Display rounding does not describe the full uncertainty. BLS technical note

Preliminary and subject to revision. July 2026 state observations are preliminary and are estimated from the existing benchmark base. The August 28, 2026 preliminary benchmark publication concerns March 2026 total nonfarm employment; final state/metro benchmark revisions are scheduled for March 2027. A revision process does not mean every displayed value is guaranteed to change. BLS state release; benchmark release

Jobs, not people or plants. The payroll counts do not tell you how many unique people work in manufacturing, how many manufacturing companies operate in a state, or how many factories exist. Firm and establishment counts have their own units and sources. BLS payroll definitions; Census glossary

No comprehensive output, wage, export, productivity or establishment dataset. This edition’s complete 50-state table covers employment and concentration. The five-state 2022 shipment benchmark and the Rockford all-industry wage comparison are limited, separately identified supplements — not manufacturing GDP or manufacturing wages by state. No missing value in those omitted measures should be read as zero. Census benchmark; BLS regional wage summary

No causal claims. The page reports what changed, not why. The rank-gap calculation is not a business-climate, growth-potential or economic-risk score.

Geography is not interchangeable. State, metropolitan area, county and city are different units. The Rockford employment figures are metropolitan-area figures; DC is separately reported, not ranked as a 51st state. BLS state/area table; Rockford geography definition

Time periods and methods are not interchangeable. Monthly seasonally adjusted estimates, unadjusted annual averages, occupational surveys, quarterly wages and the 2022 Economic Census answer different questions on different bases. They are kept in separate tables or explicitly dated paragraphs and should not be merged into a single ranking. BLS annual table; occupational report; wage summary; Census benchmark

The supplemental figures have been checked. The 2022 shipment values, Illinois annual averages, Rockford annual averages and derived Rockford-versus-Illinois share comparison were verified against their named primary sources on September 15, 2026. Their separate dates remain visible rather than being relabeled as July 2026. Census; BLS annual inputs

Figures not verified or assembled for this edition: Winnebago County manufacturing employment; all-state manufacturing establishment counts; and manufacturing’s share of GDP for individual states. The national-versus-state-sum discussion is a methodological comparison between separately estimated series, not a claim that either total reconciles to the other. BLS sum-of-states guidance

What is included in the downloadable dataset?

The full state/DC dataset is supplied as CSV and JSON with no form or signup, plus the frozen source inputs and a standard-library Python reproduction script. Version 1.1.0 is the July 2026 snapshot verified September 15, 2026; the filenames identify that exact version. A changed data vintage or corrected calculation belongs in a new version rather than a silent replacement of these files.

State/DC CSV — 51 rows. Fifty state rows plus a separately identified District of Columbia row. Columns retain manufacturing employment for July 2025, May 2026, June 2026 and preliminary July 2026; total nonfarm employment for July 2025 and preliminary July 2026; calculated manufacturing share; year-over-year level and percentage changes; job-count rank; employment-share rank; and rank gap. Employment inputs and level changes in this file are thousands of jobs. It also carries geography type, source URL, release date, verification date, precision, adjustment/status labels and version. State ranks are blank for DC. The additional six-decimal share column is a display aid; rankings are calculated from the exact input ratio, not that rounded field.

State/DC JSON — dataset and calculation metadata. The same 51 rows, with DC ranks represented as null; the full source record; the five reconciliation checks and results; 50-state summaries; exclusions; Puerto Rico’s transcribed values held outside the rankings; and separately identified annual, national and shipment-value supplements. A missing U.S. Virgin Islands manufacturing observation is described as unpublished seasonally adjusted, never as zero.

Frozen state/DC source inputs. The six transcribed employment fields for all 51 rows, in jobs at the source’s 100-job precision, with source and verification metadata. These are the inputs behind the state table, not a separate survey.

Reproduction script — Python, no third-party dependencies. The script contains the verified input transcription and regenerates the state/DC CSV and JSON, every derived state column, both rankings, rank gaps, the five checks and the supplemental CSVs. Exact rational shares determine the ranks. It can run offline, writes to a selected output directory, and refuses to overwrite different existing output unless explicitly instructed.

python manufacturing-by-state-build-script-v1.1.0.py --output-dir ./data

Separate supplemental CSVs: Illinois and Rockford annual employment, 2023–2025; national monthly manufacturing employment, 2023–August 2026; and 2022 manufacturing shipment values for the five states in Table 6. Each file includes its data period, units and primary-source metadata. Their periods are not inputs to the July 2026 state rankings.

Version note, September 15, 2026. Version 1.1.0 uses exact shares for sorting, excludes DC from state summaries, normalizes displayed negative zero, and includes the verified supplemental inputs. The underlying July state employment observations are unchanged from the checked BLS release. The page’s Rhode Island/Oklahoma order matches the corrected download.

Refresh triggers. New BLS state releases, revised annual tables, and replacement or corrected Census benchmark data are the triggers for a new verification pass. The August 2026 state release was scheduled for September 18, 2026. “Last verified” records an actual source check, and “Last updated” records a content or data change; neither should advance just because a calendar date changes. BLS release schedule in the July release

What are this page’s citation details?

The bibliographic details below identify the page and its frozen dataset version. They distinguish the original agency observations from the calculations published in this reference.

Publication: Rockford Dock Door Repair Research
Page title: Manufacturing Statistics by State: Jobs, Concentration, and Change
URL: rockforddockdoorrepair.com/research/manufacturing-statistics-by-state/
Last verified: September 15, 2026
Last updated: September 15, 2026
Dataset version: 1.1.0 — July 2026 employment snapshot, verified September 15, 2026
Underlying sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (state, national and regional employment; occupational and wage context); U.S. Census Bureau (2022 Economic Census shipment values, identified by reference year in Table 6)

The raw employment estimates are the BLS’s observations. The employment shares, rankings, rank gaps, annual-average calculations and reconciliations identified as calculations are Rockford Dock Door Repair Research’s work. The source links and downloadable inputs preserve that distinction.

What are the answers to common manufacturing-data questions?

These answers use July 2026 preliminary, seasonally adjusted state employment estimates unless another period is stated. National figures, annual averages and the historical shipment benchmark remain separate, rather than being presented as one interchangeable count. BLS state source; national source; Census benchmark

Which state has the most manufacturing jobs?
California, with an estimated 1,201,900 manufacturing payroll jobs in July 2026, ahead of Texas at 979,700 and Ohio at 688,700. These are preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS estimates. BLS state inputs

Which state has the highest manufacturing employment share?
Indiana, where manufacturing accounts for 15.74% of nonfarm payroll jobs — an estimated 512,000 of 3,252,200 — in July 2026. Wisconsin is second at 15.06% and Iowa third at 13.45%, calculated from the same preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS estimates. BLS state inputs

Which states rank in the top ten on both measures?
Four: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, using July 2026 preliminary, seasonally adjusted BLS estimates. Every other state in either top ten falls outside the other top ten; the measures are manufacturing job count and manufacturing’s share of nonfarm employment. BLS state inputs

How many manufacturing jobs are there in the United States?
BLS’s national series reported an estimated 12,638,000 manufacturing payroll jobs in August 2026, seasonally adjusted and preliminary. The calculated 2025 annual average is about 12,632,000, the mean of 12 monthly seasonally adjusted observations rounded to the nearest 1,000 jobs. The 50 state estimates on this page sum to 12,546,700 for July 2026, but BLS does not treat a sum of states as its national estimate. BLS national release; national series; state technical note

Are manufacturing jobs growing or shrinking?
Both, depending on where and over what window. National manufacturing employment rose by an estimated 16,000 in August 2026 and was up 58,000 from a December 2025 low, while the calculated annual average fell by about 241,000 between 2023 and 2025. Across states, published job levels increased in 20, decreased in 27 and were equal at published precision in three between July 2025 and July 2026; percentages rounded to one decimal instead show 20 positive, 26 negative and four at 0.0%. BLS national release; national series; state inputs

Where does Illinois rank?
Fifth by manufacturing job count and 17th by manufacturing’s share of nonfarm employment, with an estimated 571,000 manufacturing jobs making up 9.24% of state nonfarm payroll employment in July 2026. The figures are preliminary and seasonally adjusted. BLS state inputs

Are manufacturing jobs the same as manufacturing workers?
No. The payroll figures count positions at establishments, not unique people; a person on two employer payrolls is counted on each. Someone who lives in one state and works in another is counted where the establishment is for the payroll measure. BLS survey definitions

Are shipment values the same as manufacturing GDP?
No. Shipment value is a dollar measure of shipments, while manufacturing GDP measures value added — gross output minus intermediate inputs. Employment count, shipment value and GDP should retain their separate units and periods. Census shipment benchmark; BEA value-added definition

Are Rockford metro figures the same as Winnebago County figures?
No. The Rockford metropolitan area covers Winnebago and Boone counties. County-level manufacturing figures are not published on this page; the annual employment figures belong to the two-county metropolitan area. BLS Rockford geography definition

How current is this data?
The state table is July 2026, published August 21, 2026 and verified September 15, 2026. July estimates are preliminary and subject to revision; the August 2026 state release was scheduled for September 18, 2026. National monthly figures, annual observations and Census figures carry their own dates. BLS July state release and schedule

Which primary sources support these figures?

The source list identifies the original agencies, releases and tables used for the observations and definitions on this page. Each source was checked on September 15, 2026; an older reference year remains an older reference year after that check.

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. State Employment and Unemployment — July 2026. USDL-26-1412, released August 21, 2026. Table 3 supplies the state/DC inputs; the technical note supplies coverage, estimation and sum-of-states guidance. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_08212026.htm
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. All employees, thousands, manufacturing, seasonally adjusted — CES3000000001. Monthly national series, extracted in the source display September 15, 2026. The annual averages here are calculated from its 12 monthly observations for each complete year, not a separately retrieved annual-average observation. Verified September 15, 2026. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Situation — August 2026. USDL-26-1435, released September 4, 2026. Establishment-survey narrative and Table B-1; August figures are preliminary. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_09042026.htm
4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Current Employment Statistics Preliminary Benchmark (State and Area) — March 2026. USDL-26-1426, released August 28, 2026. Preliminary March 2026 total-nonfarm revisions and the final benchmark timetable; not replacement July manufacturing estimates. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/presae_08282026.htm
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. State Employment and Unemployment news-release archive. The archive identifies the October 2025 release as not published. This is a release-status record, not proof of absent CES payroll observations. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/bls/news-release/laus.htm
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. State Employment and Unemployment — November 2025. Released January 7, 2026. The establishment-data collection note and tables include October 2025 payroll estimates. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_01072026.htm
7. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls in states and selected areas by major industry — annual averages. Illinois and Rockford metropolitan-area manufacturing and total-nonfarm annual averages for 2023–2025. These annual-average observations are not seasonally adjusted. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/sae/tables/annual-average/table-1-employees-on-nonfarm-payrolls-in-states-and-selected-areas-by-major-industry.htm
8. U.S. Census Bureau. Manufacturing Week: 2022 Economic Census analysis. September 2025 analysis reporting 2022 manufacturing shipment values. Values here retain the Census article’s published rounding. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2025/09/manufacturing-week.html
9. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages in Rockford — May 2023. Released July 25, 2024. Production-occupation employment and location quotients; also identifies the Rockford area as Boone and Winnebago counties. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/news-release/2024/occupationalemploymentandwages_rockford_20240725.htm
10. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages in Rockford — May 2020. Released July 14, 2021. Historical production-occupation shares: 16.4% in the area and 6.1% nationally. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/news-release/2021/occupationalemploymentandwages_rockford_20210714.htm
11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rockford Area Economic Summary. PDF updated July 9, 2026; page 1 reports fourth-quarter 2025 average weekly wages across all industries. This is a rolling source, so its data period and update date are retained here. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/summary/blssummary_rockford.pdf
12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industries at a Glance: Manufacturing — NAICS 31–33. Industry coverage and manufacturing classification. A manufacturing industry job is not the same unit as a production occupation. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag31-33.htm
13. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. What is industry value added?. Definition of industry GDP/value added as gross output less intermediate inputs. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bea.gov/help/faq/184
14. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns glossary. Definitions distinguishing an establishment from a company or enterprise. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/about/glossary.html
15. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A look at manufacturing jobs on National Manufacturing Day. Historical BLS state employment/concentration comparison. It is not the numerical source for the July 2026 tables. Verified September 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/a-look-at-manufacturing-jobs-on-national-manufacturing-day.htm

By Rockford Dock Door Repair

Rockford Dock Door Repair Research is the independent research and reference section of rockforddockdoorrepair.com.

Last verified: September 15, 2026. Last updated: September 15, 2026.