Industry leaderboard · FY2026

H-1B by Industry (NAICS Sector) FY2026

NAICS 2-digit sectors ranked by H-1B Labor Condition Application volume. Sector 54 (Professional, Scientific & Technical Services) dominates the program; the rest of the long tail covers everything from healthcare to academia.

Summary

H-1B sponsorship is heavily concentrated in Professional, Scientific & Technical Services, which accounts for 5.36 million filings across 57,468 employers—more than eight times the volume of any other industry. This sector includes consulting, IT services, engineering, and research firms that form the core of the H-1B visa program.

The next tier of significant H-1B activity includes Manufacturing (657k filings), Information technology (624k), Educational Services (613k), and Finance & Insurance (588k). Together, these five sectors represent the vast majority of H-1B demand. Manufacturing is split across metals/machinery/electronics and chemicals/paper subsectors. Health Care & Social Assistance, Retail Trade, Wholesale Trade, and Administrative Services round out measurable sponsorship, each with tens of thousands of filings.

Smaller H-1B-sponsoring sectors include Construction, Management of Companies, Transportation, and miscellaneous trades. The concentration in technology-adjacent and specialized professional services reflects the visa's original design to address skilled labor shortages in knowledge-intensive roles.

H-1B by industry sector
H-1B professional services
H-1B manufacturing sponsorship
NAICS industry H-1B filings
H-1B technology sector

Top 10 industries

Sector concentration of US H-1B sponsorship.

Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

5,362,182 · 54

Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)

657,405 · 33

Information

624,447 · 51

Educational Services

613,346 · 61

Finance & Insurance

588,317 · 52

Health Care & Social Assistance

383,320 · 62

Retail Trade (general)

250,553 · 45

Manufacturing (paper/chemicals)

119,027 · 32

Wholesale Trade

118,161 · 42

Administrative & Support Services

110,482 · 56

30 ranked entries

#	Entity	NAICS	Filings	Sponsors
1	Professional, Scientific & Technical Services	54	5,362,182	57,468
2	Manufacturing (metal/machinery/electronics)	33	657,405	12,667
3	Information	51	624,447	11,007
4	Educational Services	61	613,346	6,945
5	Finance & Insurance	52	588,317	9,250
6	Health Care & Social Assistance	62	383,320	13,141
7	Retail Trade (general)	45	250,553	2,757
8	Manufacturing (paper/chemicals)	32	119,027	4,712
9	Wholesale Trade	42	118,161	7,818
10	Administrative & Support Services	56	110,482	3,695
11	Retail Trade (motor/furniture)	44	85,110	3,494
12	Construction	23	60,209	5,192
13	Management of Companies	55	56,815	868
14	Manufacturing (food/textile)	31	46,226	2,403
15	Transportation	48	38,979	1,749
16	Other Services	81	38,240	3,364
17	Accommodation & Food Services	72	34,702	2,395
18	Real Estate, Rental & Leasing	53	34,069	2,805
19	Mining, Quarrying, Oil & Gas	21	26,302	829
20	Utilities	22	23,810	1,013
21	Arts, Entertainment & Recreation	71	22,023	1,753
22	Public Administration	92	17,012	1,394
23	Warehousing & Postal	49	9,614	409
24	Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting	11	8,077	588
25	Sector -4	-4	179	97
26	Sector 15	15	160	28
27	Sector 74	74	146	3
28	Sector 43	43	128	9
29	Sector 73	73	124	17
30	Sector 34	34	96	9

Methodology

The NAICS code on each LCA is the employer’s self-reported industry. We aggregate to the 2-digit sector level for readability; per-employer pages preserve the full 6-digit code.