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Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing: NAICS 326

About the Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing subsector

The plastics and rubber products manufacturing subsector is part of the manufacturing sector.

Industries in the Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing subsector make goods by processing plastics materials and raw rubber. The core technology employed by establishments in this subsector is that of plastics or rubber product production. Plastics and rubber are combined in the same subsector because plastics are increasingly being used as a substitute for rubber; however the subsector is generally restricted to the production of products made of just one material, either solely plastics or rubber.

North American Industry Classification System

The plastics and rubber products manufacturing subsector consists of these industry groups:

Plastics Product Manufacturing: NAICS 3261
Rubber Product Manufacturing: NAICS 3262

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in plastics and rubber products 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, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment and Unemployment


Data series	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	718.9	719.5	(p)721.7	(p)719.1
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)	544.3	542.7	(p)544.8	(p)542.1
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	8.2%	2.9%	4.3%	5.3%
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey

Employment by Occupation


Data series	Employment, 2024
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	34,080
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	23,820
First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers	36,930
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	34,930
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	79,230
Packers and packagers, hand	21,160
Team assemblers	72,580

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for plastics and rubber products manufacturing.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in plastics and rubber products manufacturing.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees


Data series	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Average hourly earnings	$29.93	$29.91	(p)$30.01	(p)$30.07
Average weekly hours	39.8	40.6	(p)40.8	(p)40.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees


Data series	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Average hourly earnings	$25.20	$25.12	(p)$25.08	(p)$25.30
Average weekly hours	40.6	41.0	(p)41.4	(p)41.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation


Data series	Wages, 2024
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	22.16	22.36	46,090	46,510
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	21.33	22.20	44,360	46,180
First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers	31.13	33.40	64,750	69,480
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	21.66	22.30	45,060	46,380
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	19.23	20.61	39,990	42,880
Packers and packagers, hand	17.87	18.18	37,180	37,820
Team assemblers	18.93	20.10	39,360	41,810

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

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 plastics and rubber products 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	2020	2021	2022	2023
Fatalities
Number of fatalities				16
There was a series break beginning with 2023 data due to NAICS 2022. Data for years prior to 2023 are available at www.bls.gov/iif.


Data series	2023
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	2.9
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	1.9
Cases involving days away from work	0.9
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	1.0
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

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	Jan. 2025	Feb. 2025	Mar. 2025	Apr. 2025
Producer price index	(p)252.878	(p)252.420	(p)252.905	(p)253.482
Percent change from previous month	(p)0.3%	(p)-0.2%	(p)0.2%	(p)0.2%
Import index	(r)130.6	(r)130.9	(r)128.7	131.1
Percent change from previous month	(r)-0.4%	(r)0.2%	(r)-1.7%	(r)1.9%
Export index	136.4	(r)134.1	(r)134.2	134.6
Percent change from previous month	0.5%	(r)-1.7%	(r)0.1%	(r)0.3%
Footnotes (p) Preliminary (r) Revised

(Source: Producer Price Indexes, International Price Program)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in plastics and rubber products manufacturing. Also included in this section is information on productivity, presented as the rate of change in output per hour of workers in the industry.

Establishments


Data series	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Number of establishments
Private industry	14,310	(p)14,374	(p)14,474	(p)14,566
Local government	2	(p)2	(p)2	(p)2
State government
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

This section presents productivity and related data for the industry, presented as the percent change from the previous year. 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 annual change in the labor cost of producing one unit of output.


Data series	2021	2022	2023	2024
Labor productivity, output per hour	1.6	-7.2	0.2	-0.2
Hours worked	4.0	3.9	-2.3	-2.4
Output	5.6	-3.6	-2.1	-2.6
Unit labor costs	0.5	12.6	4.4	6.5

(Source: Productivity)

Data extracted on: May 16, 2025