A look at manufacturing occupations for National Manufacturing Day

From automobiles, batteries, and carpets to x-ray equipment, yogurt, and zippers—American manufacturers of these and myriad other products accounted for about 12.8 million jobs in May 2024. In recognition of National Manufacturing Day, the first Friday in October, we take a look at employment and wages of the most common occupations in manufacturing industries.

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators was the largest occupation in manufacturing, with employment of about 1.1 million in May 2024. Over one quarter of these jobs were in motor vehicle manufacturing (152,670) or motor vehicle parts manufacturing (138,530). The largest occupations in manufacturing also included first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (497,140); laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers (406,630); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (377,260).

General and operations managers, with an annual mean wage of $148,790, and industrial engineers ($104,170) were among the highest paying large occupations in manufacturing. Both of these occupations had annual mean wages above the U.S. average of $67,920. Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives, except technical and scientific products ($85,430) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($74,500) also had above-average wages. The lowest paying large occupations in manufacturing included laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers ($42,620) and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders ($44,630).

These data are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. For more information, see the OEWS data for the entire manufacturing sector and specific manufacturing industries.