Watch 40 years of change in manufacturing jobs across the United States from 1975 to 2015. The colors are based on the number of manufacturing jobs in each county as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Labor Estimates. Each year (1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015) are compared to 1975 to calculate the percentage change. Green counties have gains in manufacturing jobs. Red counties have losses. Counties that are gray have little to no change.

Overall, these 15 counties have seen the largest losses. Most of these counties were former industrial powerhouses who had distinct advantages in transportation, infrastructure, and energy availability. Those advantages have been rendered obsolete. Rapid automation and infrastructure improvements in transportation, energy, and communications across the rest of nation have enabled production to spread across the United States as well as overseas.

Top 15 Counties by Largest Losses in Manufacturing Jobs

County 2015 1975 Net Loss Cook County, Illinois 186,967 666,136 -479,169 Los Angeles County, California 357,554 777,465 -419,911 New York County, New York 27,098 293,745 -266,647 Wayne County, Michigan 88,578 325,077 -236,499 Cuyahoga County, Ohio 69,812 224,160 -154,348 Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 21,473 164,885 -143,412 Allegheny County, Pennsylvania 36,150 159,353 -123,203 Milwaukee County, Wisconsin 52,495 154,937 -102,442 Kings County, New York 21,174 119,640 -98,466 Hamilton County, Ohio 48,357 134,527 -86,170 Monroe County, New York 40,872 125,510 -84,638 St. Louis City Missouri 17,871 194,998 -77,127 Fairfield County, Connecticut 33,938 108,405 -74,467 Bergen County, New Jersey 30,947 103,631 -72,684 Essex County, New Jersey 16,990 89,462 -72,472

Almost all of these counties are located in the Rust Belt with the exclusion of Los Angeles, County. Although many of these counties have successfully shifted to new industries in tech and finance, others such as Wayne County have been struggling.

On the other side, counties which have seen the largest increases have not seen increases as large as the decreases in the top 15 counties. Cook County alone had 666k manufacturing jobs in 1975 compared to these counties which had 927k manufacturing job combined in 2015.

Top 15 Counties by Largest Gains in Manufacturing Jobs

County 2015 1975 Net Change Maricopa County, Arizona 115,385 71,973 43,412 Snohomish County, Washington 63,537 20,588 42,949 San Diego County, California 104,092 71,087 33,005 Elkhart County, Indiana 60,478 31,269 29,209 Harris County, Texas 189,946 161,511 28,435 Washington County, Oregon 47,167 19,747 27,420 Travis County, Texas 40,252 14,568 25,684 Riverside County, California 41,210 18,907 22,303 Ottawa County, Michigan 38,358 17,732 20,626 San Bernardino County, California 53,485 32,871 20,614 Collin County, Texas 23,618 3,705 19,913 Rutherford County, Tennessee 25,301 5,989 19,312 Waukesha County, Wisconsin 43,850 24,896 18,954 Gwinnett County, Georgia 25,246 6,328 18,918 DuPage County, Illinois 55,273 36,416 18,857

Note: Some counties have been excluded from the summary tables due to missing data on some of the reported years.