Manufacturing is returning to the United States, according to new research published on August 12 from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
Manufacturing establishments increased from 336,000 in 2014 to 401,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024, the report says.
The states with the largest shares of manufacturing workers were California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania. For instance, California employed 10.4% of all manufacturing workers in the U.S., while Texas had 7.3% of manufacturing workers.
However, Southern states have driven the manufacturing recovery from 2014 to 2024. Florida, Texas and Georgia drove most of the revival in U.S. manufacturing, with Florida contributing 17% to the rise in manufacturing employment and 13% to the rise in manufacturing establishments over the past decade.
Manufacturing jobs in the United States has declined over the past 60 years, according to research published by Ricardo Marto and Hoang Le. Manufacturing used to dominate U.S. jobs, but not anymore.
“While manufacturing was once a leading source of jobs, employment in the sector has declined over the past decades as the economy has shifted toward service industries," the report said. "It averaged 33.7% of employment in 1960 and 19.4% in 1990.”
The research analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
If the number of establishments had stayed at its 2014 level, the U.S. economy would have had 2 million fewer jobs in manufacturing at the end of 2024, the report said.
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Although the average number of employees per manufacturing establishment has been falling as automakers automate, a manufacturing establishment still employed an average of 32 workers in 2024.
For instance, the food manufacturing industry drove 19% of the increase in the number of manufacturing establishments and 49% of the rise in manufacturing employment over the past decade.
Starting in 2014, manufacturing employment has been slowly recovering. Over the past decade, manufacturing employment and establishments grew 5% and 19%, respectively, to 12.6 million people and to 401,000 establishments.
About half of the sector’s increase in employment over the past 10 years was driven by the food manufacturing subindustry. Florida and Texas housed the boost, jointly explaining 32% of the increase in manufacturing employment and 25% of the rise in manufacturing establishments.
In the past two weeks, Trump has announced at least five new manufacturing projects.
- AbbVie announced a $195 million investment to expand its U.S.-based drug production capacity.
- Apple announced the company will increase its U.S. investment to $600 billion over the next four years as it brings additional components of its supply chain and advanced manufacturing back home — directly creating 20,000 new American jobs and many thousands more across its suppliers.
- Century Aluminum announced it will invest $50 million to revive its South Carolina manufacturing plant for the first time in a decade, bringing its production back to 2015 peak levels.
- Ford announced it will invest $5 billion across its Kentucky and Michigan manufacturing plants to deliver a new midsize truck and advanced batteries.
- GE Appliances announced a $3 billion investment in its U.S.-based manufacturing, onshoring 1,000 jobs and expanding its plants across five states.
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