California Is No. 1 for Manufacturing Jobs, U.S. Census Figures Show

No recount needed. California remains far and away the nation’s largest manufacturing employer with more than 1.8 million workers. That’s nearly twice as many as runner-up Texas.

Those are some of the findings of a Census Bureau report released this week detailing U.S. manufacturing activity nationwide. The Census Bureau’s 1998 Annual Survey of Manufacturers counted 17.1 million workers employed by U.S. manufacturing concerns in 1998. That’s a modest increase of 1% from the previous year.

California weighed in with nearly 1,844,00 manufacturing workers, up 2% from 1997. The state’s Big Three manufacturing employment sectors were computer & electronics, with 393,000 workers; fabricated metal products, with 193,000 employees; and transportation equipment, which includes aerospace products, with 181,000 workers. Other large employment sectors include apparel and textiles with 159,000 employees, followed closely by food manufacturing with 156,000 workers.

California’s manufacturing shipments are valued at more than $400 billion.

The Census Bureau culled data from a sample of 58,000 manufacturers nationwide. For a copy of the survey, go to the Census Bureau’s Web site at https://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/geograph.html and click on the 1998 Geographic Area Statistics icon.