Industry comparison

Wholesale Trade 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 Wholesale Trade differ significantly in H-1B sponsorship scale. Manufacturing accounts for 657,405 total H-1B filings across 12,667 employers, making it a major sponsor of specialty occupation workers. Wholesale Trade, by contrast, has filed 118,161 H-1B petitions across 7,818 employers—roughly one-sixth the filing volume but with a similar concentration of sponsors per employer.

Manufacturing's larger filing count reflects the sector's reliance on technical roles in engineering, production, and quality assurance, often requiring advanced degrees. Wholesale Trade sponsors H-1B workers primarily for logistics, procurement, and specialized distribution roles. While Manufacturing leads significantly in absolute filings, both sectors demonstrate sustained H-1B participation, with Wholesale Trade showing a smaller but consistent employer base.

manufacturing vs wholesale trade H-1B
H-1B filings by sector comparison
manufacturing H-1B sponsorship
wholesale trade H-1B employer
NAICS 33 vs 42 H-1B

Sector A

Wholesale Trade

NAICS 42Rank #9

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	Wholesale Trade	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)
Total filings	118,161	657,405▲
National share %	1.27%	7.04%▲
Distinct sponsors	7,818	12,667▲
Filings / employer	15	52
Rank	#9	#2▲
Top sponsor	Dell Marketing L.P.	Apple Inc.
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

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

Wholesale Trade

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	7,558
FY2011	6,511
FY2012	6,434
FY2013	6,584
FY2014	7,128
FY2015	7,692
FY2016	8,054
FY2017	7,652
FY2018	7,960
FY2019	8,069
FY2020	6,028
FY2021	8,904
FY2022	6,766
FY2023	6,670
FY2024	6,255
FY2025	7,627
FY2026	2,269

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