A national manufacturing total can hide very different markets underneath it.
Between 2017 and 2022, the number of U.S. chemical manufacturing establishments increased 10.2%, while manufacturing establishments overall declined 1.7%, according to the Census Bureau.
That divergence offers a useful economic finding: an industry can gain ground inside a shrinking sector. For suppliers, workers, and communities, the composition of manufacturing deserves as much attention as its overall size.
More Chemical Manufacturing Locations, Fewer Manufacturing Locations Overall
The Census Bureau’s Economic Census comparison shows:
From 2017 to 2022:
Manufacturing overall: Establishments declined from 291,586 to 286,626—a 1.7% decrease.
Chemical manufacturing: Establishments increased from 13,571 to 14,961—a 10.2% increase.
These figures count business locations, not necessarily separate companies. They describe changes from 2017 to 2022, not current growth in 2026.
These are establishment counts—business locations, rather than necessarily separate companies. The comparison describes 2017–2022, not current growth in 2026. Chemical manufacturing includes products such as medicines, soaps, fertilizers, and basic chemicals.
A recent Census retrospective puts the broader sector’s scale at $7 trillion in revenue in 2024. Revenue measures sales; it should not be treated as manufacturing’s contribution to gross domestic product.
What This Means for Suppliers
For a supplier, “manufacturing customers” is too broad a category to guide expansion.
A business selling equipment, packaging, maintenance, or transportation services needs to identify which industries use its capabilities. Growth in one manufacturing segment may create opportunities that a sector-wide decline obscures.
The next step is to examine actual buyers: their locations, purchasing requirements, planned investments, and willingness to qualify new vendors. The national establishment figures identify a direction worth investigating. They do not establish demand for a particular supplier.
Customer concentration also matters. An expanding industry can still offer a difficult market if purchasing decisions sit with a small number of large buyers.
What This Means for Workers
A changing mix of manufacturers can change the mix of work available.
Within pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, production workers’ annual hours increased from 270.1 million to 341.6 million between 2017 and 2022. Hours worked do not count as new jobs.
For workforce programs, that distinction matters. More activity does not specify which occupations employers need or how readily existing workers can move into them.
Training decisions should follow local hiring evidence: job openings, required credentials, wage offers, and employer commitments. A general manufacturing program may need different courses depending on the industries it serves.
What This Means for Communities
For economic development officials, the practical question is which manufacturing industries fit a community’s workforce, infrastructure, and supplier base.
The Census comparison does not explain every opening or closure, and it cannot establish that a particular city benefited. It does show why a single national headline is a weak basis for local planning.
Dollar measures require similar care. Chemical manufacturing’s shipment value rose 22.4% over the same five-year period, but those figures were not adjusted for price changes. They do not demonstrate equivalent growth in physical output.
A useful local manufacturing assessment should distinguish establishment counts, employment, production, and sales—and identify which industries are driving each measure.
For a supplier choosing customers, a worker choosing training, or a community choosing infrastructure investments, those differences can change the decision.
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