Fastest-Growing US Manufacturing Counties

How the ranking works

We filtered the 2025 QCEW annual file for NAICS 31-33, private ownership, county-level records, disclosed employment, and at least 10,000 annual average manufacturing jobs. That floor removes tiny counties where one modest expansion can create a spectacular percentage without forming a broadly useful labor or supplier market. Counties are ranked by BLS year-over-year employment percentage change.

The threshold is a screen, not a definition of success. A rural county with 4,000 factory jobs may be crucial to its state and deeply specialized. This table answers a narrower question: which sizable US county manufacturing bases expanded fastest in 2025?

Annual average employment is better for this comparison than a single month's payroll because it dampens seasonal swings. The change column is the difference from the prior annual average. Establishments are operating locations, not parent companies. Average annual pay is total covered wages divided by average employment. Location quotient compares manufacturing's share of local jobs with its national share.

The two growth measures tell different stories

Percentage growth rewards momentum. Jobs added rewards scale. Travis County leads both in this filtered group with 24.2 percent growth and 11,876 additional jobs, so its result is not a small-base illusion. Cook County sits much lower by rate at 1.8 percent, yet its large base turned that into 3,197 added jobs, the second-largest absolute gain shown.

Santa Clara County makes the same point. Its 1.6 percent rate is last in the published ranking, but the change equals 1,954 jobs. Licking County ranks second by percentage at 11.5 percent, producing 1,207 jobs. A labor planner worries about headcount. An analyst tracking acceleration may prefer rate. A supplier should look at both.

Do not add every row and call it national job creation. The table omits contracting counties, smaller markets, suppressed cells, state-level unallocated records, and counties below the cutoff. It is a ranked expansion screen, not a national net-employment account.

Texas combines the largest surge with several growth markets

Texas places Travis, Collin, Fort Bend, El Paso, and Tarrant counties in the report. Travis has 60,968 manufacturing jobs and 1,354 establishments. Collin added 1,794 jobs, a 6.0 percent increase, while Tarrant added 1,874 jobs to a much larger 93,180-job base.

The location quotients keep the Texas story grounded. Tarrant's 1.13 LQ indicates an above-average manufacturing share. Travis, Collin, Fort Bend, and El Paso remain below 1.00 even after growth. These are large, diverse economies where manufacturing can expand quickly without dominating total employment.

For industrial prospecting, that distinction matters. A fast-growing low-LQ county may contain new facilities and fresh budgets, but buyers can be scattered among many service-sector employers. A high-LQ county usually has denser supplier relationships and a more visible factory identity.

Smaller industrial counties show deep specialization

Storey County, Nevada reports 15,168 manufacturing jobs, 8.5 percent growth, and an 8.75 LQ. That concentration is the highest in the table. Allegan County, Michigan combines 10.9 percent growth with a 4.33 LQ. Troup County, Georgia posts a 3.77 LQ, while Randolph County, North Carolina reaches 3.42.

A high location quotient does not mean a market is diversified. It means manufacturing takes an unusually large share of local employment. That may reflect one dominant plant, a focused cluster, or a broad network of producers. Use establishment count as a second clue. Storey County reports only 38 establishments, while Allegan reports 256. The sales approach for those markets should be different.

Concentration can help recruiting because manufacturing work is familiar locally. It can also make hiring competitive and expose the county to a narrow industry's cycle. Site decisions need plant announcements, occupation data, commuting flows, utilities, land, logistics, and training capacity beside the QCEW figures.

The Midwest is adding jobs, not merely defending legacy capacity

Licking County, Ohio ranks second after adding 1,207 jobs. Allegan County ranks third with 1,507 added jobs. Illinois contributes Madison, DuPage, and Cook counties. Indiana contributes Porter County, which grew 7.3 percent, and Ohio also contributes Butler County at 2.2 percent.

These records complicate the lazy picture of a uniformly shrinking factory belt. Growth is uneven, and some long-established regions are winning new work while nearby counties contract. County data catches that variation. State totals can hide it because gains in one industrial corridor offset losses in another.

Brown County, Wisconsin added 739 jobs and carries a 2.27 LQ. Saginaw County added 235 jobs from a smaller base. DuPage added 2,065 jobs, one of the largest absolute moves in the table. Those markets require different messages, even though all sit under a broad Midwest label.

The Southeast has several concentrated expansion markets

Morgan County, Alabama grew 9.6 percent and has a 3.37 LQ. Mobile County added 807 jobs. Bartow County, Georgia grew 5.0 percent with a 3.12 LQ. Spartanburg County, South Carolina is larger at 38,205 jobs and still grew 2.4 percent.

North Carolina contributes Randolph and Forsyth counties near the top, plus Wake County farther down. Randolph's 3.42 LQ signals industrial specialization, while Wake's 0.45 LQ reflects a broader economy. Both grew, but they do not offer the same density of traditional production buyers.

County growth can spill across borders. Workers commute, suppliers serve several plants, and new facilities pull investment toward nearby interchanges. Build a practical territory around drive time and plant locations after using this national table to identify the initial county.

Pay data helps explain what kind of growth is occurring

Santa Clara County's $353,328 average annual pay is an outlier tied to its high-value industry and occupation mix. Anne Arundel County reports $136,432, Travis reports $136,250, and Collin reports $129,458. At the other end, Sussex County reports $58,887.

Average pay is not the salary for a machine operator, engineer, or plant manager. The BLS definition divides total covered wages by annual average employment and includes bonuses and other covered compensation. A few highly compensated roles can lift the figure. Use occupation-specific wage data for recruiting budgets.

Still, pay helps characterize a market. Rapid growth paired with high annual pay can signal advanced equipment, electronics, aerospace, or a headquarters-heavy employment mix. Rapid growth at lower pay may point toward labor-intensive production. Subsector data and named employers are necessary before drawing a firm conclusion.

How to use the county data

For manufacturing sales territories

Start with jobs added to find expanding demand, then use establishment count to estimate account density. Travis and DuPage offer both growth and many establishments. Storey offers intense specialization concentrated among few sites. Match the territory model to the buyer universe instead of assigning equal effort by county population.

For site selection

Use LQ as evidence of manufacturing experience, not as a complete score. Review wage levels, occupation supply, commuting patterns, power, water, freight access, incentives, and competing projects. A county growing quickly may have proven it can support new production, or it may be approaching a labor constraint.

For workforce planning

Absolute gains give a rough measure of new labor demand. Compare them with local labor-force size and occupation employment. Ask whether growth came from a single opening, several expansions, or reporting changes. Local workforce boards and company announcements can explain what the national file cannot.

For industrial marketing

Growth creates news, searches, vendor evaluations, hiring, and new capacity problems. Build county pages only when you have real local relevance. Thin pages that repeat a city name do not help a plant manager. Useful local content names industries, facilities, service constraints, freight corridors, and proof of work nearby.

National and global forces behind local factory growth

County growth never happens in a vacuum. The manufacturing sector responds to export demand, tariff changes, global trade, a trade agreement, labor costs, machinery investment, and supply chain disruption. Automotive, textile, chemical manufacturing, semiconductor, EVs, robotics, renewable energy, and other manufacturing industries can move in different directions during the same year. That mix helps explain why one manufacturing hub expands while a neighboring county is flat.

Reshoring, nearshoring, and offshoring decisions affect where companies add domestic production. Global supply chains changed after the pandemic, and recurring supply chain disruptions pushed some buyers to place production closer to customers. A manufacturer may accept higher nominal wages to gain lower costs elsewhere, shorter lead times, better inventory control, or a competitive edge. Geopolitical risk and a skilled-worker shortage can alter the same calculation.

Public policy can matter too. A subsidy, the Inflation Reduction Act, and related tax incentives can influence production capacity and location decisions, particularly for batteries, semiconductor facilities, and renewable energy equipment. Those programs do not remove barriers to entry. Power, water, permitting, housing, training, and supplier readiness still decide whether announced manufacturing plants reach production.

Do not confuse county employment with GDP, GDP per capita, manufacturing output, revenue growth, or production growth. QCEW supplies statistical data on jobs and wages. It does not measure a county's share of global manufacturing, world market position, or country’s manufacturing competitiveness. Per capita output can rise while employment falls, and employment can rise while productivity growth has slowed.

The reporting calendar matters when comparing 2022, 2023, early 2024, 2024, 2025, and 2026. This page uses the latest consistent annual benchmark, not a forecast for the next decade and not a CAGR projection. An uptick in one year may become modest growth later. A manufacturing powerhouse or global leader label should require more evidence than one annual growth rate.

International comparisons need a separate dataset. Eastern Europe, Brazil's industrial regions, and business in China operate under different statistical systems. China is also central to many supply networks, but total U.S. county records cannot measure offshore employment. Each place has unique strengths. Companies seeking to diversify, open new markets, or reduce exposure should pair this local screen with global manufacturing, trade, and investment analysis.

Methodology and limitations

The QCEW program is based largely on state unemployment insurance records and covers more than 95 percent of US employment. Its administrative foundation supports detailed county and industry reporting, but annual files are released after the reference period and can be revised.

We use private NAICS 31-33 employment because government-owned manufacturing is small and inconsistent across locations. The NAICS system classifies establishments by primary activity. Establishments are work locations, so one company may appear several times. Employment is annual average covered employment.

Disclosure rules protect individual employers. A county or detailed industry may be suppressed when publication could reveal a company's information. Our 10,000-job minimum also means the list intentionally excludes many growing rural markets. Geographic labels follow the BLS area-title system, which treats Connecticut planning regions and Virginia independent cities as county equivalents.

Year-over-year movement can reflect openings, closures, expansions, contractions, acquisitions, reclassification, worksite allocation, and revisions. It should be treated as a strong screening signal, then checked against local evidence. The ranking is not a forecast of 2026 employment.

How to validate a county growth signal

A ranked table is most valuable when it produces a better second question. Once a county looks promising, find out what moved. Search economic-development announcements for new facilities and completed expansions, not only projects that were proposed. Check company career pages for active production, maintenance, quality, engineering, and warehouse roles. Review permits, utility filings, and local planning agendas when the project is large enough to leave a public trail.

Timing matters. A factory announced in one year may start hiring two years later. Construction employment is not counted as manufacturing employment, while workers hired to run the completed plant are. A major hiring wave can enter the annual average gradually, depending on when payroll began. That is why a 2025 QCEW gain may reflect a project announced well before 2025.

Compare the employment change with establishment growth in the source file. Jobs rising faster than establishments suggests expansion at existing locations or a small number of large openings. Establishments rising faster than jobs can point toward many small shops, administrative changes, or early-stage activity. Neither pattern is inherently better. It changes the likely buyer set.

Next, inspect subsectors. NAICS 31-33 joins durable and nondurable production in one total. A new semiconductor fab, vehicle plant, food processor, chemical facility, and cabinet shop create different supplier needs. The BLS industry files include detailed manufacturing categories when disclosure permits publication. Match those categories to the products or services you actually sell.

Finally, check the trend across several quarters or annual releases. One strong year can mark the beginning of a cluster, the completion of a single project, or a rebound from temporary downtime. A sustained sequence is stronger evidence of broad expansion. Keep the same geography, ownership, industry definition, and seasonal basis when comparing periods.

What growth means for the factory floor

Headcount growth tends to arrive with operational friction. New lines need commissioning, work instructions, preventive maintenance, tooling, spare parts, guarding, material flow, inspection plans, and trained supervisors. Existing employees may be promoted quickly, leaving gaps behind them. Contractors and new hires can enter at the same time that output targets rise.

That combination creates demand, but it also raises execution risk. A vendor approaching a growing plant should speak to the actual constraint. If the plant is installing capacity, the issue may be startup timing and integration. If employment rises because a backlog is being worked down, the issue may be uptime, overtime, and throughput. If growth comes from a new product, quality documentation and supplier qualification may be the pressure points.

County data cannot identify those needs by itself. It tells you where to look. A credible outreach program pairs the public signal with company-level research. Name the expansion, connect it to a plausible operational problem, and explain relevant experience. Do not congratulate a plant on county growth as though every employer contributed equally.

Recruiters should also distinguish expansion hiring from replacement hiring. QCEW shows net movement at the county-industry level. It does not show the number of people hired to replace departures. A county adding jobs can still have much larger gross hiring demand, especially where turnover is high or specialized occupations are scarce.

Why establishment counts matter to suppliers

Two counties with the same manufacturing employment can produce very different sales markets. One may have a handful of huge plants. Another may have hundreds of job shops and mid-sized producers. The first favors named-account coverage, long qualification cycles, and site-specific technical selling. The second may support distributor routes, local search, seminars, association sponsorships, and repeatable offers.

Davidson County, Tennessee reports 948 establishments supporting 20,983 manufacturing jobs. Storey County reports 38 establishments supporting 15,168 jobs. Their employment bases are in the same broad range, but their account structures are radically different. A campaign built around plant count would treat them differently from day one.

Establishment data also prevents a common market-sizing mistake. Manufacturing employees are not buyers. A plant with 2,000 workers may have a small group selecting a specific service. Conversely, 200 small plants can create 200 owners, operations leaders, or purchasing contacts. Estimate potential accounts first, then estimate relevant roles and likely purchase frequency.

Reading location quotient without overreaching

The BLS location quotient is a ratio of ratios. It divides manufacturing's share of local employment by manufacturing's national employment share. A county at 2.00 has twice the national concentration. That does not mean its factories are twice as productive, pay twice as much, or grew twice as fast.

LQ is particularly useful when comparing a small industrial county with a huge diversified county. Kings County, New York has 16,647 manufacturing jobs, but its 0.22 LQ shows that manufacturing occupies a small part of the local employment base. Buchanan County, Missouri has fewer jobs at 12,154, yet its 3.25 LQ reveals much deeper local specialization.

For workforce strategy, a high LQ can indicate residents and institutions familiar with production work. For diversification strategy, the same figure can indicate dependence on industrial cycles. For sales, it can mean a denser referral network among plants, suppliers, technical schools, and service firms. The interpretation depends on the decision.

Frequently asked questions

What was the fastest-growing manufacturing county in 2025?

Among counties with at least 10,000 private manufacturing jobs, Travis County, Texas ranked first with 24.2 percent annual growth and 11,876 jobs added.

Which growing county is most manufacturing-dependent?

Storey County, Nevada has the highest location quotient in this ranking at 8.75. The BLS location quotient method compares the local manufacturing employment share with the national share.

Why require 10,000 manufacturing jobs?

The floor focuses the report on established labor and supplier markets. Without it, a small plant opening could make a tiny county rank first by percentage even though the market has limited scale.

Does a location quotient above 1.00 mean growth?

No. LQ measures concentration, while year-over-year change measures growth. A county can be highly concentrated and shrinking, or lightly concentrated and growing quickly.

Are these plant counts?

The table reports covered manufacturing establishments. “Plant” is convenient shorthand, but an establishment can be a factory, shop, office tied to a manufacturing employer, or another operating location classified under NAICS 31-33.

Sources

1. BLS QCEW 2025 annual data by industry
2. BLS downloadable QCEW files
3. QCEW methodology
4. QCEW concepts
5. QCEW coverage
6. Location quotients explained
7. BLS county area titles
8. Census NAICS