Free Top 10 U.S. States with the Highest Manufacturing Employment (2018–2025)
The provided horizontal bar chart illustrates the Leading U.S. States in Manufacturing Jobs based on 2025 Projected Employment figures, measured in thousands, for the period spanning 2018 to 2025. The data clearly shows a strong projection for manufacturing employment, with the top states reaching well over one million projected jobs. California leads the list with the highest projected employment, standing at approximately 1,400 thousand manufacturing jobs. Following closely behind is Texas, which is projected to have robust employment figures nearing the 1,050 thousand mark, reinforcing the dominance of these two large states in the sector. The chart then shows a group of states with significantly lower, yet still substantial, projections. Ohio and Michigan are projected to have employment figures hovering near the 700 thousand level. Further down the ranking, states like Indiana and Illinois show projections slightly below the 700 thousand mark but still substantially above the 350 thousand benchmark. The remaining states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and New York, all project manufacturing employment to be slightly under the 700 thousand level, clustered in the range of approximately 550 to 650 thousand jobs. Overall, the chart demonstrates a substantial concentration of projected manufacturing employment in the leading states, with the gap between the top state, California, and the states at the lower end of the top ten being nearly 750 thousand jobs, highlighting the wide variance in the projected growth and scale of the manufacturing sector across the nation.
| State |
2025 Employment (Projected, thousands) |
| California | 1400 |
| Texas | 980 |
| Ohio | 720 |
| Michigan | 690 |
| Indiana | 570 |
| Illinois | 550 |
| Pennsylvania | 520 |
| Wisconsin | 510 |
| North Carolina | 490 |
| New York | 480 |
