United States · NAICS 331 · Annual, 2025
Primary Metal Manufacturing in the United States
Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 331 in the United States, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.
In 2025, Primary Metal Manufacturing (NAICS 331) employed about 362,500 people in the United States across roughly 6,110 establishments, with average annual pay of $93,400.
Employment in Primary Metal Manufacturing in the United States declined 22.2% from 2004 to 2025. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for the United States are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.
- 362,500Employment, 2025
- 6,110Establishments
- $93,400Avg. annual pay
- 0.2%Share of U.S. jobs
The 2025 figures above are a DTG estimate: Estimated · 1.00. † Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
Employment, 2004 to 2025
Annual average · all ownerships
Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 466,000; 2005 464,800; 2006 463,100; 2007 455,700; 2008 443,900; 2009 363,700; 2010 361,200; 2011 387,700; 2012 400,000; 2013 396,000; 2014 397,500; 2015 392,400; 2016 373,400; 2017 369,400; 2018 379,600; 2019 386,400; 2020 350,600; 2021 348,200; 2022 364,900; 2023 372,100; 2024 368,700; 2025 362,500.
Last ten years
Annual · 10 years
| Year | Employment | Estab. | Avg. annual pay | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 362,487 | 6,110 | $93,405 | 1.7% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2024 | 368,730 | 6,027 | $89,257 | 0.9% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2023 | 372,085 | 5,903 | $86,189 | 2.0% | pub. |
| 2022 | 364,934 | 5,761 | $83,659 | 4.8% | pub. |
| 2021 | 348,211 | 5,639 | $78,252 | 0.7% | pub. |
| 2020 | 350,578 | 5,538 | $71,408 | 9.3% | pub. |
| 2019 | 386,363 | 5,479 | $71,003 | 1.8% | pub. |
| 2018 | 379,640 | 5,497 | $70,731 | 2.8% | pub. |
| 2017 | 369,448 | 5,499 | $67,959 | 1.1% | pub. |
| 2016 | 373,399 | 5,523 | $64,700 | 4.9% | pub. |
† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.
Where these numbers come from
Reading these figures
The figures on this page come from one named vintage, stated below, and are annual values for all ownerships combined. Where QCEW withheld a value, the marked figure is an estimate that DTG produced under the constraints of the published record; suppression is a property of QCEW, not of DTG, and a withheld value is marked rather than silently omitted. Two things DTG itself holds back, and says so where it does: an estimate that cannot be given a reliability score is not shown, and average pay is not shown where fewer than three jobs are reported. The row is marked withheld, with the reason in a note beneath the table. The mark is on every row that carries a value: the headline, the yearly history, the subsectors and the other states. An estimated value that rounds below one is shown as less than one, not as zero. Quarterly figures, county figures and projected years are in the app.
How this figure was built
Employment is the average of the three monthly counts in each quarter, averaged across the year, and establishments are averaged across the year the same way. Average annual pay is the year’s total wages divided by that average employment. Each of these is DTG’s value: QCEW’s published figure where QCEW disclosed it, and DTG’s estimate, marked, where it did not. How withheld values are estimated, and what the reliability score beside a figure means, are described on the industry data and disclosure and provenance pages.
Notes
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Primary Metal Manufacturing in the United States, quarterly, at full depth
This page shows annual figures for primary metal manufacturing in the United States. A free account shows every detailed industry beneath it, quarterly, for every state, with projections to ten years. No card.
County figures, file export and the API are on paid plans.