Industry comparison

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics) vs Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

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

Summary

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics) and Professional, Scientific & Technical Services represent two distinct patterns in H-1B sponsorship. Manufacturing filed 657,405 total H-1B cases across 12,667 employers, while Professional Services filed 5,362,182 cases across 57,468 employers—over eight times more filings and roughly four and a half times more sponsoring companies.

Professional Services dominates H-1B volume, reflecting the sector's reliance on specialized roles in consulting, software development, engineering design, and IT services. Manufacturing's smaller footprint aligns with its focus on production and facility-based roles, where H-1B sponsorship is less central to workforce strategy.

Both sectors compete for skilled talent, but Professional Services' scale shows how the H-1B program concentrates in knowledge-work industries. Manufacturing's participation underscores the program's reach across capital-intensive and technical production sectors.

H-1B manufacturing vs professional services
manufacturing H-1B sponsorship
professional services H-1B filings
sector comparison H-1B
H-1B sponsorship by industry
technical services H-1B

Sector A

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

NAICS 33Rank #2

Sector B

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

NAICS 54Rank #1

Key metrics

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

Metric	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)	Professional, Scientific & Technical Services
Total filings	680,015	5,462,333▲
National share %	7.11%	57.14%▲
Distinct sponsors	13,769	63,101▲
Filings / employer	49	87
Rank	#2	#1▲
Top sponsor	Apple Inc.	INFOSYS LIMITED
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

Year-over-year H-1B demand within each sector.

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	24,379
FY2011	28,553
FY2012	29,695
FY2013	29,093
FY2014	32,346
FY2015	32,605
FY2016	33,183
FY2017	35,036
FY2018	37,966
FY2019	38,898
FY2020	37,942
FY2021	69,187
FY2022	52,902
FY2023	54,392
FY2024	46,170
FY2025	54,231
FY2026	43,437

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	162,393
FY2011	184,930
FY2012	237,548
FY2013	270,996
FY2014	334,578
FY2015	420,866
FY2016	442,248
FY2017	408,878
FY2018	415,563
FY2019	418,841
FY2020	341,992
FY2021	433,810
FY2022	318,868
FY2023	324,927
FY2024	279,362
FY2025	273,304
FY2026	193,229