Methodology
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This analysis—conducted by researchers at Trace One—used 2025 Annual Average employment and establishment data released on June 2, 2026 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) for industries classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 311, Food Manufacturing. Historical employment trends were also drawn from the QCEW to examine changes in food manufacturing employment and its share of the overall U.S. workforce between 1990 and 2025.
State rankings were based on both total food manufacturing employment and food manufacturing workers per 1,000 total employees. Metropolitan rankings used the same employment concentration metric and included only metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas with at least one component county reporting disclosed food manufacturing employment data. For brevity, the term "metropolitan areas" refers to both metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas throughout this analysis.
Additionally, the QCEW suppresses certain employment data to protect the confidentiality of individual employers. Employment figures are not disclosed when an industry in a particular geographic area contains fewer than three establishments or when a single employer accounts for more than 80% of total industry employment. As a result, some metropolitan and micropolitan areas may reflect slightly understated employment totals due to these confidentiality protections.
For complete results, see The U.S. Cities That Manufacture Your Grocery Staples on Trace One.
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