Industry comparison

Manufacturing (paper/chemicals) vs Retail Trade (general)

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

Summary

Manufacturing (paper/chemicals) and Retail Trade (general) represent two distinct H-1B sponsorship patterns in the U.S. economy.

Retail Trade dominates in overall H-1B filings with 161,910 applications compared to Manufacturing's 53,965—nearly three times as many. However, Manufacturing sponsors significantly more unique employers, with 2,775 firms filing for H-1B workers versus Retail Trade's 1,806 employers. This suggests Retail Trade concentrates H-1B sponsorship among fewer, larger employers filing in greater volume.

The contrast reflects different workforce strategies: Manufacturing's distributed sponsor base indicates broader use of H-1B immigration across more companies in the sector, while Retail Trade's higher filing count from fewer employers suggests larger retailers drive the sector's H-1B activity.

Manufacturing vs Retail Trade H-1B
H-1B filings by sector
Manufacturing H-1B sponsorship
Retail Trade H-1B comparison
NAICS sector H-1B data

Sector A

Manufacturing (paper/chemicals)

NAICS 32Rank #8

Sector B

Retail Trade (general)

NAICS 45Rank #6

Key metrics

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

Metric	Manufacturing (paper/chemicals)	Retail Trade (general)
Total filings	53,965	161,910▲
National share %	1.41%	4.23%▲
Distinct sponsors	2,775▲	1,806
Filings / employer	19	90
Rank	#8	#6▲
Top sponsor	Eli Lilly and Company	AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC (WA)
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers