Industry comparison

Retail Trade (general) 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 Retail Trade represent two distinct patterns of H-1B sponsorship in the U.S. labor market. Manufacturing leads significantly in both filings and employer count: 314,824 filings across 7,385 employers, compared to Retail Trade's 161,910 filings from 1,806 employers.

Manufacturing's larger H-1B footprint reflects demand for specialized technical and engineering roles in production, machinery operation, and electronics. The sector's higher employer count (7,385 vs 1,806) indicates H-1B sponsorship is distributed across a wider base of companies. Retail Trade, with fewer filings and a smaller employer base, shows lower overall H-1B activity—consistent with retail roles being typically filled through domestic hiring and requiring fewer specialized visa-sponsored positions.

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

Sector A

Retail Trade (general)

NAICS 45Rank #6

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	Retail Trade (general)	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)
Total filings	161,910	314,824▲
National share %	4.23%	8.22%▲
Distinct sponsors	1,806	7,385▲
Filings / employer	90	43
Rank	#6	#3▲
Top sponsor	AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC (WA)	Apple Inc.
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers