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Overtime hours in manufacturing industries
March 31, 2026
In 2025, weekly overtime in manufacturing averaged 3.8 hours, compared with 3.6 hours in 2023 and 2024. Average weekly overtime in manufacturing reached 4.6 hours in 2018. In 2025, weekly overtime averaged 3.7 hours in durable goods (such as metal products and machinery) manufacturing and 3.8 hours in nondurable goods (such as food and plastics) manufacturing.
| Industry | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Manufacturing, total | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.8 |
Durable goods | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.7 |
Fabricated metal product manufacturing | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
Machinery manufacturing | 4.0 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.0 | 3.1 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
Computer and electronic product manufacturing | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 2.4 | 2.6 |
Transportation equipment manufacturing | 5.3 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.3 |
Nondurable goods | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.1 | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
Food manufacturing | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.3 | 4.0 |
Chemical manufacturing | 4.5 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
Plastics and rubber products manufacturing | 4.5 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
Note: Total manufacturing, durable goods, and nondurable goods include industries not shown separately. | |||||||||||
Among manufacturing industries, weekly overtime averaged 2.5 hours in machinery manufacturing, 2.6 hours in computer and electronic product manufacturing, and 5.3 hours in transportation equipment manufacturing. Weekly overtime averaged over 5.0 hours in transportation equipment manufacturing during several years of the past decade.
These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are not seasonally adjusted. The most recent monthly data are published in "The Employment Situation." Also see more charts of employment, hours, and earnings data. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) currently requires covered employees (unless they are exempt) to receive overtime pay at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay for work hours in excess of 40 during a workweek. The FLSA became law in 1938; BLS has published data on overtime hours since 1956.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Overtime hours in manufacturing industries at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/overtime-hours-in-manufacturing-industries.htm (visited April 01, 2026).
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