Data compiled January 2026 and updated March 2026 using the latest available federal and industry sources. Most series are current through November to December 2025, with December figures preliminary pending final BLS revision. Productivity data reflect revised Q3 2025 estimates released January 29, 2026. Employment data have been updated to reflect the February 2026 Employment Situation release (BLS, March 6, 2026), which includes revised December 2025 and January 2026 figures.

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Executive Summary

~12.69–12.7 million
U.S. manufacturing workers (NAICS 31–33, latest available)

~4.2%
Average share of roles unfilled per manufacturer (NAM, Q3 2025)

~33%
Share of total compensation attributable to benefits

As of late 2025, the U.S. manufacturing workforce remains under structural strain rather than short-term disruption. Headline employment levels have remained range-bound near the high-12-million level, but hiring pressure persists, skill requirements are rising, and long-term labor availability remains constrained.

Manufacturing employment declined from 12.71 million in September to 12.69 million in December 2025. [NEW] The downward trend continued into early 2026: after a modest gain of 5,000 jobs in January, the sector lost 12,000 jobs in February, a sharp reversal and a 500% increase in losses compared to February 2025, when the sector lost just 2,000 jobs. Production and nonsupervisory roles account for roughly 70% of the workforce, underscoring the sector’s continued reliance on hands-on operational labor. Employment momentum has clearly weakened, and worker churn remains elevated.

Despite cautious hiring sentiment, labor demand continues to outpace supply. Job openings remain high relative to historical norms, and manufacturers report persistent difficulty filling roles. According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the average manufacturer had ~4.2% of positions unfilled in Q3 2025, with nearly one in four reporting vacancy rates above 5%.

Compensation pressures have moderated but not reversed. Average hourly earnings in manufacturing reached $36.07 per hour as of December 2025, while production and nonsupervisory workers earned $29.51 per hour. Total compensation costs continue to rise at roughly 3–4% annually, with benefits representing about one-third of total labor costs.

Revised BLS data show output per hour rising 2.4% year-over-year as of Q3 2025, the strongest gain since 2011, though recent improvements are partly driven by declining hours worked rather than surging output.

Workforce risk is increasingly structural. Manufacturing’s workforce skews older than the national average, replacement demand is rising, and skill availability—rather than pure headcount—is now the dominant constraint. Deloitte research shows more than one-third of manufacturing executives cite workforce skills as their top talent concern as investment accelerates in automation, analytics, and smart manufacturing.

Through 2026, workforce challenges are unlikely to resolve through economic cycles alone. Manufacturers that align workforce planning with compensation strategy, skills development, safety, and flexibility will be best positioned to sustain productivity amid ongoing uncertainty.

Related: California Minimum Wage 2026: All Rates & Requirements

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Key Manufacturing Workforce Benchmarks at a Glance (2025–2026)

Workforce size
Total manufacturing employment: ~12.69–12.7 million (December 2025, preliminary)

Workforce composition
Production & nonsupervisory share: ~70%

Labor availability
Unemployment rate (people previously employed in manufacturing): ~3.1–3.7% (latest CPS data)

Vacancy pressure
Average roles unfilled (company level): ~4.2% (NAM Q3 2025)
Manufacturers with ≥5% unfilled roles: ~25%

Hiring dynamics
Manufacturing job openings: ~394k–426k (Oct–Dec 2025, JOLTS)

Pay benchmarks
Average hourly earnings (all employees): $36.07/hour (December 2025, CES)
Average hourly earnings (production & nonsupervisory): $29.51/hour (December 2025)

Total compensation
Compensation per hour worked: ~$46/hour (ECEC, Q2 2025)
Benefits share of compensation: ~33%

Workforce stability
Union membership rate: 7.8% (2024)

Safety
Total recordable injury rate: 2.8 cases per 100 workers (2023)

Productivity
Output per hour growth: +2.4% year-over-year; +3.7% quarter-over-quarter (Q3 2025, annualized)

Future outlook
Executives citing skills as top workforce concern: >33%

Related: The Complete List of Manufacturing Conferences in 2026

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1. Overview of the U.S. Manufacturing Workforce

~70%
Production and nonsupervisory share of the manufacturing workforce

Manufacturing employment showed modest softening through late 2025, edging down from 12.71 million in September to 12.69 million in December. Revised BLS data show December was weaker than initially reported, with the sector losing 13,000 jobs rather than the originally estimated figure. A brief gain of 5,000 jobs in January 2026 was followed by a loss of 12,000 in February. Nondurable goods manufacturing accounted for the larger share of February losses (approximately 8,000 jobs), while durable goods shed roughly 4,000. The manufacturing workweek also edged down 0.1 hour to 40.1 hours in February. These figures point to accelerating softness beneath the surface, with uneven performance across subsectors.

Production and nonsupervisory employees make up the majority of the workforce, reflecting manufacturing’s ongoing dependence on hands-on operational roles that are difficult to automate or offshore quickly.

The broader labor market context has also shifted. Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 92,000 in February 2026, and the national unemployment rate held at 4.4%. While unemployment among workers previously employed in manufacturing remains relatively low by historical standards, the overall labor market is showing signs of cooling, which may begin to ease some of the hiring pressure manufacturers have experienced in recent years.

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2. Hiring Pressure and Labor Availability

1 in 4 manufacturers
Report vacancy rates of 5% or higher

Despite moderated hiring plans, labor demand remains elevated. Manufacturing job openings stayed in the roughly 394k–426k range through the fourth quarter of 2025, while hires and separations remained near parity. This dynamic explains why employment levels appear steady even as recruiting activity remains intense.

NAM survey data provides company-level insight: in Q3 2025, manufacturers reported an average of ~4.2% of roles unfilled, with nearly one-quarter facing vacancy rates above 5%. These gaps are broadly distributed across subsectors rather than isolated to a few hot spots.

Early 2026 establishment data suggest hiring momentum in manufacturing is fading. The BLS diffusion index for manufacturing, which measures the breadth of employment gains across subsectors, fell to 45.1 in February 2026, down from 47.9 in January. A reading below 50 indicates more manufacturing subsectors are contracting employment than expanding it. Combined with declining hours worked, these signals suggest that while structural labor shortages persist, near-term hiring activity is softening as manufacturers navigate tariff uncertainty, shifting demand, and cautious outlook conditions.

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3. Manufacturing Workforce Pay Benchmarks

$29.51/hour
Average hourly earnings for production & nonsupervisory workers (Dec 2025)

Compensation remains a central workforce challenge. As of December 2025, production and nonsupervisory manufacturing workers earned $29.51 per hour, while average hourly earnings across all manufacturing employees reached $36.07 per hour.

Wage pressure is increasingly driven by role-specific skill scarcity rather than uniform labor shortages. Occupations such as machinists, inspectors, technicians, and skilled assemblers continue to command premiums due to their direct impact on quality, throughput, and compliance.

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4. Total Compensation and Benefits

$46.30/hour
Total compensation per hour worked in manufacturing (Q2 2025, ECEC)

Wages alone no longer reflect the true cost of labor. Total employer compensation in manufacturing averaged $46.30 per hour worked in Q2 2025, according to BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), with benefits accounting for about one-third of that total.

Health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid leave remain widespread, reinforcing the need for holistic compensation planning. Increasingly, manufacturers must balance wages, benefits, flexibility, and career development to remain competitive.

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5. Workforce Stability and Union Representation

Union membership in manufacturing stood at 7.8% in 2024, representing a minority of the workforce. While union representation remains stable, workforce satisfaction and retention outcomes are increasingly shaped by local labor markets, work conditions, benefits, scheduling, and advancement pathways rather than representation alone.

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6. Safety, Injuries, and Workforce Risk

2.8
Recordable injury cases per 100 full-time workers (2023)

Manufacturing continues to face elevated safety risk relative to many other industries. The most recent finalized data show a total recordable injury rate of 2.8 cases per 100 workers (2023).

Staffing gaps can compound safety risks by increasing overtime, fatigue, and operational strain. As noted in Section 7, recent productivity gains have been driven in part by declining hours worked rather than rising output, meaning manufacturers are running leaner. While that supports efficiency metrics, it can also concentrate workload on fewer workers, raising the stakes for workforce planning as both a human and operational resilience issue.

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7. Productivity, Output, and Labor Costs

~2.4%
Year-over-year growth in output per hour (Q3 2025), the strongest since 2011

Productivity trends provide critical context for workforce investment decisions. According to revised BLS data released in January 2026, manufacturing labor productivity grew 3.7% from Q2 to Q3 2025 (seasonally adjusted annualized rate), marking the third consecutive quarter of above-trend growth. On a year-over-year basis, output per hour rose 2.4% from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025, the strongest same-quarter gain since early 2011.

This recent momentum is encouraging, but should be read in context. Over the full current business cycle (Q4 2019 through Q3 2025), cumulative manufacturing productivity growth stands at just 0.4%, well below the long-run average of 2.1% per year dating back to 1987. The prior business cycle (Q4 2007 to Q4 2019) was nearly flat at 0.1%.

Importantly, the recent gains are driven in part by declining hours worked rather than rapid output expansion. Manufacturers are producing more per hour in part because they are running leaner, a dynamic consistent with the labor constraints documented throughout this report. With productivity growth currently outpacing labor cost growth, manufacturers have breathing room to reinvest in training, safety, and retention without eroding margins.

Sustaining these gains will increasingly depend on workforce skill levels and effective integration of digital tools. If lean staffing is driving productivity improvement, the sustainability of that improvement hinges on whether workers can maintain quality, throughput, and safety under constrained conditions.

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8. What Manufacturers Expect Next

~37%
Manufacturers planning to increase hiring

NAM outlook surveys show manufacturers remain cautious but not pessimistic. Roughly one-third expect to increase hiring, while most anticipate stable employment levels. Workforce challenges consistently rank among the top business concerns, alongside input costs and economic uncertainty.

The February 2026 BLS data reinforce this cautious posture. Manufacturing shed 12,000 jobs in a month when the broader economy also contracted by 92,000 nonfarm jobs. Revised figures for December 2025 also showed a larger decline than initially reported. With the manufacturing diffusion index below 50 and average hours edging lower, the near-term employment outlook appears more guarded than at any point in the prior 12 months.

The prevailing mindset has shifted from aggressive expansion to careful optimization, doing more with constrained labor resources.

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9. Future Workforce Outlook (2026 and Beyond)

Manufacturing workforce challenges are structural rather than cyclical. Even if hiring slows temporarily, labor availability, skills alignment, and demographic pressures will continue to shape workforce decisions.

Foreign-born workers represent a meaningful share of manufacturing employment—particularly in durable and nondurable goods—highlighting how immigration policy and labor force participation trends materially affect labor supply.

Deloitte research underscores a shift toward skills-based scarcity. More than one-third of manufacturing executives cite workforce skills as their top concern as investment accelerates in automation, AI, and digital operations.

Technology is augmenting, not replacing, the workforce. The majority of manufacturing task hours are expected to remain human-driven, making workforce planning less about reduction and more about reconfiguring roles.

Deloitte recommends an adaptive build, buy, or borrow workforce strategy:

• Build critical skills internally
• Buy specialized expertise when needed
• Borrow flexible labor to manage volatility

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What This Means for Manufacturing Leaders

• Plan for total compensation, not wage pressure alone
• Treat vacancies as a throughput and risk constraint, not just an HR metric
• Target overtime and fatigue hotspots to reduce safety and turnover risk
• Prioritize cross-training and skill adjacency as automation reshapes roles
• Use workforce flexibility as a competitive advantage, not a stopgap

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Key Takeaways for Manufacturing Leaders

• Manufacturing workforce challenges are structural, not temporary
• Skills shortages now outweigh pure headcount shortages
• Total labor costs continue rising even as wage growth moderates
• Demographics and policy materially affect labor supply
• Technology is reshaping work, not eliminating workers
• Flexible workforce strategies are becoming a competitive advantage

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Methodology & Sources

This report consolidates publicly available government data and industry research to provide a comprehensive view of the U.S. manufacturing workforce.

The report was compiled in January 2026 and updated in March 2026 using the latest available data, with most federal labor market series current through November–December 2025. December 2025 figures are preliminary and subject to BLS revision.

Scope

• Industry: NAICS 31–33 (Manufacturing)
• Geography: United States
• Workforce: All employees, with emphasis on production and nonsupervisory roles

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Primary Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Official U.S. government labor market data used for employment, wages, benefits, safety, and productivity metrics throughout this report. All BLS data referenced are publicly available federal datasets accessible through the manufacturing sector overview page and linked series.

Manufacturing sector overview (NAICS 31-33): https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag31-33.htm

BLS programs and datasets referenced:

Current Employment Statistics (CES): employment levels and average hourly earnings

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS): job openings, hires, and separations

Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS): occupation-level wage context

Current Population Survey (CPS): unemployment rates for workers previously employed in manufacturing

National Compensation Survey (NCS): benefit incidence and access

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC): total compensation and benefit cost shares

Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII / IIF): nonfatal injury rates

Productivity and Costs Program: output per hour and unit labor costs

Additional BLS publications referenced:

The Employment Situation, February 2026 (USDL-26-0367). Released March 6, 2026. Used to update manufacturing employment figures for December 2025 (revised), January 2026, and February 2026 (preliminary), as well as the manufacturing diffusion index, average weekly hours, and broader labor market context. Referenced in the Executive Summary, Sections 1, 2, and 8. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.htm

Jill Janocha Redmond, “Is manufacturing productivity recovering? Evidence from the past and present,” Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2026. Used to update Section 7 (Productivity, Output, and Labor Costs) with revised Q1 through Q3 2025 productivity data and long-term business cycle context. https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2026.6

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National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Industry sentiment, hiring expectations, and workforce constraints reported directly by U.S. manufacturers.

The following quarterly surveys were used:

• 2025 First Quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey
  https://nam.org/2025-first-quarter-manufacturers-outlook-survey/
• 2025 Second Quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey
  https://nam.org/2025-second-quarter-manufacturers-outlook-survey/
• 2025 Third Quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey
  https://nam.org/2025-third-quarter-manufacturers-outlook-survey/

These surveys were used to inform:

• Average unfilled-role percentages
• Hiring expectations and outlook trends
• Employer-reported workforce constraints

Where a specific figure is cited (e.g., ~4.2% unfilled roles), it reflects the Q3 2025 NAM survey, which provided the most recent complete data at the time of compilation.

Injury and fatality statistics reflect the most recent finalized SOII and CFOI releases available at the time of compilation.

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Deloitte Research Center for Energy & Industrials

Forward-looking workforce, technology, and skills insights used to contextualize long-term manufacturing labor trends.

• 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook — Deloitte
  https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/manufacturing-industrial-products/manufacturing-industry-outlook.html

This source was used to frame the Future Workforce Outlook section, particularly in areas related to:

• Skills-based labor shortages
• The impact of automation, AI, and smart manufacturing
• Strategic workforce planning frameworks, including the Build, Buy, or Borrow model