Manufacturing Jobs by County: Where Factory Employment Is Really Concentrated

Key findings

Largest counties for manufacturing employment

If you're trying to reach manufacturers, recruit factory talent, or benchmark where industrial activity is deepest, absolute job count is the cleanest starting point. The counties at the top of this list combine huge labor pools with dense supplier networks, deep subcontractor ecosystems, and enough plant concentration to support specialized service providers, distributors, recruiters, and industrial marketers.

There is also a strategic split inside this ranking. Los Angeles, Cook, and Harris are huge because they are massive and diversified economies with long manufacturing histories. Elkhart, Kent, and Wayne are different. They matter because manufacturing is not one part of the economy, it is one of the main engines. That distinction matters if you're choosing where to open a branch, target accounts, or publish local manufacturing content.

Source: 2023 Census County Business Patterns, county manufacturing query plus matching county all-industry query for share calculations.

Most manufacturing-dependent counties

The counties with the highest manufacturing job share are often better signals of local industrial exposure than giant population centers. When more than a third, half, or even nearly two-thirds of a local workforce depends on manufacturing, changes in production schedules, capital spending, or customer demand ripple through the entire county fast. That's why this ranking tends to matter so much to local media, economic development agencies, and workforce planners.

You can also see how specialization shapes county economics. Elkhart is closely tied to RV manufacturing. Indiana counties dominate several slots because advanced vehicle, metals, and industrial products clusters are packed close together. Storey County's numbers reflect a very concentrated advanced manufacturing base. These are not places that happen to have a few factories. They are places where manufacturing drives the local labor market.

Source: Census county manufacturing query divided by Census county all-industry query.

Highest-pay manufacturing counties

Average annual manufacturing pay is one of the fastest ways to see industry mix. Counties with heavy semiconductor, biotech, aerospace, electronics, petrochemical, or advanced instrumentation exposure tend to outrank furniture, food processing, textile, and labor-intensive assembly counties. That's why Northern California, parts of Texas and Louisiana, and a handful of specialized upstate New York counties appear so high on this list.

This metric is calculated by dividing annual payroll by total manufacturing employment in the Census dataset. It is not the same thing as a role-specific wage survey. It reflects the actual average payroll profile of the county's manufacturing base, which means occupation mix, overtime, and high-value subsectors all influence the result. For site selection, recruiting, and payroll benchmarking, that's exactly why it is useful.

Source: Census CBP county manufacturing query. Average annual pay calculated as payroll divided by employment.

Counties with the biggest factory base

Establishment count matters if you sell into manufacturing. A county with 2,000 or 10,000 manufacturing establishments usually has a wide mix of small and midsize shops, machine shops, contract manufacturers, packaging firms, fabricated metal operations, and specialty producers. That creates a completely different go-to-market environment than a county dominated by a handful of giant plants.

Los Angeles County is the clearest example. It leads the country in both manufacturing jobs and establishment count, but average plant size is only 28.9 employees per establishment. Miami-Dade also shows up on the establishment list even though it ranks much lower in total employment. That tells you the market is broad and fragmented, which usually means more account volume and smaller average deal size.

Source: 2023 Census County Business Patterns county manufacturing query.

Largest average plant size

Average employees per plant is a blunt measure, but it is still useful because it tells you what kind of manufacturing ecosystem a county likely has. Counties with very large average plant sizes often revolve around shipbuilding, automotive assembly, heavy industry, defense work, food processing complexes, or a small number of giant facilities that dominate the local market.

Newport News, Scott County in Kentucky, Gibson County in Indiana, and Anderson County in Tennessee are good examples. These are not fragmented shop markets. They are enterprise manufacturing markets where fewer facilities account for a larger share of employment. If you sell software, staffing, or industrial services, that usually means a shorter target list and more complex buying committees.

Source: Census CBP county manufacturing query. Average employees per plant calculated as employment divided by establishments.

Why county-level manufacturing data matters

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau. 2023 County Business Patterns API query, county manufacturing employment, establishments, and payroll, NAICS 31-33.
2. U.S. Census Bureau. 2023 County Business Patterns API query, county all-industry employment.
3. U.S. Census Bureau. 2023 County Business Patterns API query, United States total, NAICS 31-33 manufacturing.
4. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns program overview.
5. U.S. Census Bureau. 2023 County Business Patterns release announcement.
6. U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS 31-33 manufacturing definition.
7. National Association of Manufacturers. Manufacturing in the United States, economic data center.
8. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis / BLS. Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Manufacturing.
9. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis / BLS. Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Manufacturing.