A look at manufacturing jobs on National Manufacturing Day

National Manufacturing Day, celebrated on the first Friday in October, recognizes the importance of the manufacturing industry in the United States. Over 12.7 million U.S. workers were employed in manufacturing in 2022. Though transportation equipment manufacturing was the largest manufacturing industry in the nation and in 16 states, food manufacturing topped the list in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Indiana had the highest concentration of manufacturing employment, at 2.04 times the U.S. average. An industry’s employment concentration in an area is measured using location quotients. A location quotient greater than 1 means that the industry’s share of employment in the area is greater than its share of employment in the nation as a whole. Wisconsin (1.95), Iowa (1.71), and Michigan (1.65) also had high manufacturing employment location quotients in 2022. In total, 28 states had manufacturing employment location quotients greater than 1.

Transportation equipment was the largest manufacturing industry in Indiana in 2022, accounting for 25.8 percent of the state's manufacturing employment. It was followed by fabricated metal product manufacturing (10.4 percent), food manufacturing (8.1 percent), and machinery manufacturing (8.0 percent).

These data are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2-digit sector and 3-digit subsector levels were used for industry analysis. For more data on employment and wages, see our QCEW Data Viewer. We also have charts and maps on the latest QCEW data release. QCEW Location Quotient Details provides more information on location quotients and how they are calculated.