Manufacturing employment as a percent n of total employment

Sub-categories

Choose categories from the dropdowns below to see different breakdowns of the data. Some will not be available until a higher level is chosen.

Download headline data (.csv) Download source data (.csv)

Download source data for disaggregations (.csv)

Headline data

Manufacturing employment as a percent of total employment
Year Value Units
2000 11.9 Percent
2001 11.4 Percent
2002 10.7 Percent
2003 10.2 Percent
2004 9.9 Percent
2005 9.7 Percent
2006 9.5 Percent
2007 9.3 Percent
2008 9.0 Percent
2009 8.3 Percent
2010 8.2 Percent
2011 8.2 Percent
2012 8.2 Percent
2013 8.2 Percent
2014 8.1 Percent
2015 8.1 Percent
2016 8.0 Percent
2017 7.9 Percent
2018 7.9 Percent
2019 7.9 Percent
2020 8.0 Percent
2021 7.8 Percent
2022 7.9 Percent
2023 7.8 Percent

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Geographical Area:

Unit of Measurement:

Footnote:

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from United States statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from American statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other American-specific metadata information.

Indicator

Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment
Organisation

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Definition and concepts

Total employment in all manufacturing activities divided by total employment in all economic activities.
Unit of measure

The ratio itself is simply the ratio of two employment series. The two employment series which are used to calculate this ratio are in millions of jobs.
Data sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - https://www.bls.gov/productivity/tables/additional-requests/home.htm
Data providers

BLS Division of International Technical Cooperation staff
Method of computation

Manufacturing employment data cover the following worker categories: employees (with source data from the BLS Current Establishment Statistics (CES) program), and self-employed workers (with source data from the BLS Current Population Survey (CPS)). Total economy employment data cover the following worker catetories: nonfarm employees (with source data from CES); self-employed workers, unpaid family workers, farm workers, and private household employees (with source data from CPS); and armed forces personnel (with source data from Department of Defense). The latest full methodology report is available here: https://www.bls.gov/lpc/lpcmethods.pdf
Date of national source publication

June 2024
Periodicity

Annual
Scheduled update by national source

February 2025 (for release of 2024 annual data)
Date metadata updated

July 2024
Time period

2000 to 2023

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator

Indicator 9.2.2: Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment
Target

Target 9.2: Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries
Organisation

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

(with the collaboration of the International Labour Organization – ILO)
Definition and concepts

Definitions:

This indicator presents the share of manufacturing employment in total employment.

Concepts:

Employment comprises all persons of working age who during a short reference period (one week), were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit. The difference between the two series for a given country is the operational criteria used to define employment, with one series based on the statistical standards from the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) and the other series based on 19th ICLS standards. In the 19th ICLS series, employment is defined more narrowly as work done for pay or profit, while activities not done mainly in exchange for remuneration (i.e., own-use production work, volunteer work and unpaid trainee work) are recognized as other forms of work.

No distinction is made between persons employed full time and those working less than full time.

The manufacturing sector is defined according to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC) revision 4 (2008, the latest) or revision 3 (1990). It refers to industries belonging to sector C in revision 4 or sector D in revision 3.
Unit of measure

Percent (%)
Data sources

The preferred official national data source for this indicator is a household-based labour force survey.

In the absence of a labour force survey, a population census and/or other type of household survey with an appropriate employment module may also be used to obtain the required data.

Where no household survey exists, establishment surveys or some types of administrative records may be used to derive the required data, keeping into account the limitations of these sources in their coverage. Specifically, these sources may exclude some types of establishments, establishments of certain sizes, some economic activities or some geographical areas.
Data providers

Mainly national statistical offices, and in some cases labour ministries or other related agencies, at the country-level. In other cases, regional or international statistical offices can also act as data providers.
Comment and limitations

The characteristics of the data source impact the international comparability of the data, especially in cases where the coverage of the source is less than comprehensive (either in terms of country territory or economic activities). In the absence of a labour force survey (the preferred source of data for this indicator), some countries may use an establishment survey to derive this indicator, but these usually have a minimum establishment size cut-off point and small units which are not officially registered (whether in manufacturing or not) would thus not be included in the survey. Consequently, employment data may be underestimated. Discrepancies can also be caused by differences in the definition of employment or the working–age population.

Method of computation

Computation Method:

T o t a l   e m p l o y m e n t   i n   m a n u f a c t u r i n g   a c t i v i t i e s   T o t a l   e m p l o y m e n t   i n   a l l   e c o n o m i c   a c t i v i t i e s × 100

Metadata update

2024-03-28
International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

(with the collaboration of the International Labour Organization – ILO)
Related indicators

8.2.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person
Back to top