Industry comparison

Information vs Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

NAICS-sector comparison built from the H1B Report corpus. Filing volume, distinct sponsor count, sponsor concentration and dominant occupations.

Summary

The Information sector and Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics) sector represent two of the largest H-1B employment categories in the United States, though they differ in scale and structure.

Information leads on total H-1B filings with 330,090 compared to Manufacturing's 314,824 — a difference of about 15,000 petitions. Manufacturing, however, sponsors H-1B workers across more employers: 7,385 companies versus 6,078 in Information. This suggests Manufacturing's H-1B demand is more distributed across smaller and mid-sized firms, while Information concentrates larger volumes among fewer large employers.

Both sectors represent significant pathways for skilled foreign workers in the U.S. labor market, reflecting ongoing competition for technical talent in software, telecommunications, and engineering disciplines.

Information vs Manufacturing H-1B
H-1B filings by sector
Information sector H-1B sponsorship
Manufacturing H-1B employers
NAICS 51 vs 33 H-1B

Sector A

Information

NAICS 51Rank #2

Sector B

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

NAICS 33Rank #3

Key metrics

Filings / employer is a concentration hint — higher means a few sponsors do most of the filing.

Metric	Information	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)
Total filings	330,090▲	314,824
National share %	8.61%▲	8.22%
Distinct sponsors	6,078	7,385▲
Filings / employer	54	43
Rank	#2▲	#3
Top sponsor	Microsoft Corporation	Apple Inc.
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers