U.S. Plastics Industry Ships $533.6B in 2025 as Long-Term Job Growth Outpaces Manufacturing

The U.S. plastics industry accounted for 1.049 million direct jobs and $533.6 billion in shipments in 2025, according to the Plastics Industry Association’s 2026 Size and Impact Report. Including suppliers, the sector’s footprint rose to 1.66 million jobs and $715.8 billion in shipments. Despite that scale, both direct employment and shipment value declined from 2024.

Published September 22, 2026

MONTREAL (Scrap Monster): The U.S. plastics industry remained one of the country’s largest manufacturing sectors in 2025, supporting more than one million direct jobs and generating more than half a trillion dollars in annual shipments.

The Plastics Industry Association’s latest Size and Impact Report puts direct industry employment at 1,049,200 jobs and direct shipments at $533.6 billion.

When upstream suppliers are included, the broader plastics-related footprint rises to 1.66 million jobs and $715.8 billion in shipments.

2025 Scale Remained Large, but Jobs and Shipments Fell From 2024

The headline figures show the size of the industry, but the year-over-year comparison adds important context.

Direct plastics-industry employment declined from approximately 1.067 million jobs in 2024 to 1.049 million in 2025, a decrease of about 1.6%.

Direct shipment value fell from $550.7 billion to $533.6 billion, a decline of roughly 3.1%.

Including suppliers, employment declined from about 1.71 million to 1.66 million, while combined shipments dropped from $754.5 billion to $715.8 billion.

The data therefore describe an industry that remained economically large in 2025 but operated below its 2024 employment and shipment levels.

Long-Term Employment Growth Still Outpaced Manufacturing

The longer-term trend looks stronger.

Between 2015 and 2025, plastics manufacturing employment increased at an average annual rate of 0.8%, according to the report.

Overall U.S. manufacturing employment grew at an average annual rate of 0.3% during the same period.

PLASTICS also said its longer historical data show the industry outperforming total manufacturing in employment, real shipments and real value added over much of the past three decades.

That distinction matters: the report shows a weaker 2025 compared with 2024, but a stronger relative employment record over the longer term.

Plastic Products Rank Eighth by U.S. Manufacturing Gross Output

The report identifies plastic products manufacturing as the eighth-largest U.S. manufacturing industry by gross output based on 2024 data, the latest year available for that measure.

This ranking should be distinguished from the broader plastics-industry footprint, which also includes resin production, plastics machinery, molds and other industry activities.

In 2025, the industry operated across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Texas Leads U.S. Plastics Employment

Texas had the largest plastics-industry workforce in 2025, with approximately 91,600 workers.

Ohio ranked second with 77,500 employees, followed by Michigan with 69,000.

Michigan did not have the largest absolute workforce, but PLASTICS said it had the highest concentration of plastics-industry workers relative to its broader employment base.

Nearly 15,000 Manufacturing Establishments

Using the U.S. government industry definition cited in the report, the plastics sector operated approximately 14,983 manufacturing establishments in 2025.

That definition does not include every business that makes plastic products internally. Companies producing so-called captive plastic products as part of another primary business can fall outside the industry count.

The sector includes resin and synthetic-material production, plastic products, plastics machinery and mold manufacturing.

For example, the report counted 394 plastics-machinery establishments employing about 11,000 workers, with shipments of $3.85 billion. Mold making accounted for 503 establishments, about 11,200 workers and $2.58 billion in shipments.

Broad End Markets Support the Industry’s Scale

PLASTICS pointed to the widespread use of plastic materials and products across healthcare, transportation, food preservation and packaging, infrastructure and manufacturing as a major reason for the industry’s broad economic footprint.

That diversity makes plastics closely tied to activity across multiple parts of the U.S. economy rather than a single end market.

At the same time, the decline in 2025 shipment value shows that broad end-use exposure does not insulate the sector from manufacturing slowdowns, pricing changes or shifts in downstream demand.

What the Report Means for Plastics Recycling

For recyclers, the report is useful primarily as a measure of the size of the downstream market that consumes and processes plastic materials.

A manufacturing base generating more than $500 billion in annual shipments represents a large potential market for secondary resin, recycled-content products and recovered feedstock where technical specifications and economics allow recycled material to compete.

However, the Size and Impact Report is an economic-footprint study. It does not by itself measure U.S. plastic recycling rates, recycled-content consumption, collection volumes or the amount of post-consumer material returned to manufacturing.

Those recycling-market indicators should therefore be analyzed separately rather than inferred from the industry’s employment or shipment totals.

Market Read

The 2026 report presents a more nuanced picture than the headline shipment figure alone suggests.

The U.S. plastics industry remained very large in 2025, with more than one million direct jobs and $533.6 billion in shipments. Its decade-long employment growth rate also remained stronger than overall manufacturing.

But direct employment and shipment value both declined from 2024, and the supplier-inclusive footprint contracted as well.

For plastics processors, recyclers and equipment suppliers, the takeaway is therefore one of scale combined with slower near-term momentum: the industry retains a large national manufacturing base, but 2025 did not match the employment or shipment levels recorded a year earlier.

What to Watch Next

• 2026 shipment growth: whether the decline recorded in 2025 reverses as manufacturing conditions change.
• Employment: whether direct plastics jobs stabilize after the 2025 decline.
• Recycled resin demand: whether end users increase secondary-plastic consumption across packaging, automotive and industrial applications.
• Capital spending: investment in machinery, automation, sorting and processing capacity.
• Regional manufacturing: whether Texas, Ohio and Michigan retain their leading employment positions.