Industry comparison

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services 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

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics) and Professional, Scientific & Technical Services represent two major sectors of H-1B sponsorship, but they differ significantly in scale.

Professional Services leads decisively on filings, with 5.36 million total filings across 57,468 employers. Manufacturing filed 657,405 total filings across 12,667 employers — roughly 12% of Professional Services' volume. Professional Services' larger employer base and substantially higher filing count reflect the tech, consulting, and engineering roles that dominate H-1B sponsorship.

Manufacturing, while smaller in overall H-1B activity, still represents a meaningful source of sponsorship for specialized technical and engineering roles in machinery, electronics, and metals production. The gap underscores the shift in U.S. visa-dependent employment toward knowledge services and away from traditional manufacturing sectors.

H-1B Manufacturing vs Professional Services
H-1B filings by sector comparison
Professional Services H-1B sponsorship
Manufacturing H-1B employers
NAICS 33 vs NAICS 54 H-1B

Sector A

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

NAICS 54Rank #1

Sector B

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

NAICS 33Rank #2

Key metrics

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

Metric	Professional, Scientific & Technical Services	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)
Total filings	5,362,182▲	657,405
National share %	57.46%▲	7.04%
Distinct sponsors	57,468▲	12,667
Filings / employer	93	52
Rank	#1▲	#2
Top sponsor	INFOSYS LIMITED	Apple Inc.
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

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

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	93,078

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	20,827