Short answer
The biggest industries in America by contribution to GDP in 2025 were finance, insurance and real estate ($6.92 trillion, 22.4% of GDP), professional and business services ($3.94 trillion, 12.8%), government ($3.43 trillion, 11.1%), manufacturing ($2.93 trillion, 9.5%) and education and health care ($2.68 trillion, 8.7%), according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By jobs, health care and social assistance leads, with 23.3 million in 2025.
- Finance, insurance and real estate produced $6.92 trillion of value added in 2025, 22.4% of US GDP.
- Housing alone was $3.03 trillion, 9.8% of GDP, and BEA's figure includes rent it imputes to owner-occupied homes.
- Health care and social assistance averaged 23.3 million jobs in 2025, up 3.5%, about 780,000 more than in 2024.
- Information grew fastest in real terms (8.2%), led by data processing and internet publishing (15.7%).
- Manufacturing's $7.23 trillion of gross output is second only to finance and real estate, though its value added ranks fourth.
On this page
This page is for sellers sizing a market, analysts and students who want the ranking of America's biggest industries from the government's own statistics, not a commercial estimate. Value added and gross output come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) industry accounts published on 30 September 2026, which cover 2025. Jobs come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics survey.
The biggest industries in America in 2025
| Rank | Sector | Value added, 2025 | Share of GDP | Real growth, 2025 | Gross output (sales), 2025 | Jobs, 2025 average (BLS) | Job change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | $6,921.8B | 22.4% | +4.0% | $10,357.2B | 9.20 million | +0.4% |
| 2 | Professional and business services | $3,943.7B | 12.8% | +2.5% | $6,084.8B | 22.42 million | -0.7% |
| 3 | Government (federal, state and local) | $3,428.6B | 11.1% | -0.2% | $5,762.7B | 23.51 million | +0.6% |
| 4 | Manufacturing | $2,930.1B | 9.5% | +1.4% | $7,230.0B | 12.63 million | -1.2% |
| 5 | Educational services, health care and social assistance | $2,680.4B | 8.7% | +3.4% | $4,338.4B | 27.34 million (private) | +3.2% |
| 6 | Wholesale trade | $1,952.4B | 6.3% | +6.4% | $3,105.3B | 6.06 million | -0.8% |
| 7 | Retail trade | $1,810.4B | 5.9% | -2.0% | $2,945.2B | 15.44 million | -0.3% |
| 8 | Information | $1,766.4B | 5.7% | +8.2% | $2,882.9B | 2.86 million | -2.1% |
| 9 | Construction | $1,340.0B | 4.3% | -0.2% | $2,588.9B | 8.27 million | +0.7% |
| 10 | Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services | $1,286.6B | 4.2% | 0.0% | $2,428.1B | 16.88 million | +0.7% |
| 11 | Transportation and warehousing | $1,008.9B | 3.3% | +0.4% | $1,930.9B | 6.64 million | +0.1% |
| 12 | Other services (repair, personal care, religious and civic groups) | $629.7B | 2.0% | -3.7% | $1,102.4B | 6.00 million | +0.8% |
| 13 | Utilities | $507.7B | 1.6% | +1.8% | $684.3B | 0.60 million | +1.5% |
| 14 | Mining, including oil and gas | $398.7B | 1.3% | +5.4% | $704.9B | 0.61 million (with logging) | -1.8% |
| 15 | Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting | $255.9B | 0.8% | -1.0% | $650.9B | Not covered (farm jobs are outside the survey) | Not covered |
Value added is each industry's contribution to GDP: its gross output less the goods and services it buys from other industries. Gross output is principally sales or receipts. Real growth is BEA's chain-type quantity index for value added. US GDP was $30,861.3 billion in 2025. Jobs are our annual averages of the twelve monthly, not seasonally adjusted BLS estimates for 2025 (matching how BLS computes its annual averages), grouped into BEA's sectors; BLS counts jobs on nonfarm payrolls, not people, and may revise 2025 when it benchmarks the survey.
The largest detailed industries
Within the sectors, these were the largest industries by value added in 2025 (BEA's most detailed published lines):
| Industry | Value added, 2025 | Share of GDP | Real growth, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing (including owner-occupied homes) | $3,028.0B | 9.8% | +1.9% |
| Banks and other credit intermediation (including the Federal Reserve banks) | $1,237.9B | 4.0% | +3.3% |
| Ambulatory health care (doctors, dentists, outpatient and home care) | $1,127.4B | 3.7% | +4.3% |
| Insurance carriers and related activities | $943.0B | 3.1% | +5.0% |
| Other real estate (commercial property, brokers, managers) | $853.5B | 2.8% | +10.8% |
| Administrative and support services (staffing, facilities, security) | $823.6B | 2.7% | -0.5% |
| Hospitals | $728.3B | 2.4% | +2.6% |
| Food services and drinking places | $708.9B | 2.3% | -1.0% |
| Data processing, internet publishing and other information services | $596.0B | 1.9% | +15.7% |
| Chemical products | $579.4B | 1.9% | +5.1% |
| Computer systems design and related services | $569.2B | 1.8% | +12.5% |
| National defense (federal government) | $565.3B | 1.8% | -1.6% |
| Management of companies and enterprises | $558.6B | 1.8% | +0.7% |
| Broadcasting and telecommunications | $548.6B | 1.8% | +0.7% |
| Publishing except internet (includes software) | $507.5B | 1.6% | +10.9% |
Our selection of BEA's most detailed lines, excluding residual "other" groupings; wholesale trade and construction aren't broken down further in BEA's annual table and appear above.
What the rankings show
The biggest "industry" is mostly homes. BEA's housing line ($3.03 trillion) includes a rental value that BEA imputes to owner-occupied homes, so it counts the services of houses people own, not just rent paid to landlords. That is why lists that put real estate first (13.7% of GDP in 2025) overstate how much of the economy is real estate companies. For a seller, the business part of the sector is finance and insurance ($2.69 trillion) and other real estate ($853.5 billion).
Services dominate. Private services-producing industries produced $22.51 trillion of value added in 2025, against $4.92 trillion for private goods-producing industries (agriculture, mining, construction and manufacturing).
Health care is the jobs engine. Health care and social assistance averaged 23.29 million jobs in 2025, 14.7% of all nonfarm payroll jobs, and added about 780,000 jobs over 2024 (our calculation). Total nonfarm jobs grew only 0.5%, to 158.46 million.
Technology is the growth engine. Information grew 8.2% in real terms, data processing and internet publishing 15.7%, and computer systems design 12.5%. Information employment fell 2.1%, so output per worker rose sharply.
Manufacturing sells more than it adds. Manufacturing's gross output of $7.23 trillion is the second largest of any sector, but much of it is the value of parts and materials bought from other industries, so its value added ($2.93 trillion) ranks fourth.
Federal jobs fell. Federal government payroll jobs averaged 2.90 million in 2025, down 3.2% from 3.00 million in 2024, while state (5.51 million) and local government (15.10 million) grew.
Where to find the biggest companies in each industry
| Sector | Lists of the largest companies |
|---|---|
| Finance, insurance and real estate | Insurance companies, real estate companies, asset managers |
| Professional and business services | Consulting firms, engineering firms |
| Health care | Health care companies, hospital systems |
| Manufacturing | Manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical companies |
| Retail and wholesale | Retailers, food companies |
| Information | Software companies, media companies |
| Construction, mining and utilities | Construction companies, oil and gas companies, utilities |
| Transportation | Trucking companies, airlines, railroads |
For the largest companies overall, see the largest companies in the US by revenue.
How we built the list
- The measure. We rank by value added, BEA's measure of each industry's contribution to GDP, because it doesn't double count: a car's value added is split between the parts maker and the assembler. Gross output (sales) is shown alongside because it's closer to what most people mean by an industry's revenue.
- The data. BEA's GDP by industry tables published on 30 September 2026, which include the annual update for 2025. Jobs are BLS Current Employment Statistics, which surveys about 119,000 businesses and government agencies a month.
- The groupings. BEA's 15 sectors based on NAICS, the North American Industry Classification System. BLS's industries are matched to them. BLS counts jobs on nonfarm payrolls, so farm work and people working for themselves without a payroll aren't included.
- What's different elsewhere. Commercial rankings of the biggest industries by revenue, such as IBISWorld's, rank hundreds of narrow industries (health insurance, hospitals, commercial banking) using their own estimates, so their order won't match. Some GDP-share lists use older years.
For how many businesses operate in each industry, see how many businesses are in the US.
What the rankings mean if you sell B2B
Pick the measure that matches your pricing. If you price per seat or per employee, rank industries by jobs: health care, government and professional services are the biggest. If you price per transaction or take a share of spend, gross output is closer. If you sell to a function (finance, IT, operations), value added shows where the economic activity is.
Watch growth, not just size. Information (8.2%), wholesale trade (6.4%) and mining (5.4%) grew fastest among the sectors in real terms in 2025, while retail, other services and agriculture shrank. A smaller growing industry often buys faster than a large flat one.
Translate the sector into accounts. A sector is millions of businesses. Narrow it with NAICS codes and firmographics, then build a list; our guide to building a prospect list covers the steps.
Worked example
Illustrative example. Clearpath Training (clearpath.example) sells online compliance training at $60 per employee per year and is choosing its next industry.
- Size by jobs. Health care and social assistance had 23.29 million jobs in 2025; manufacturing had 12.63 million.
- Apply a realistic reach. If Clearpath can win 1% of employees in either sector over three years: health care is 232,900 seats x $60 = about $14.0 million a year; manufacturing is 126,300 x $60 = about $7.6 million.
- Add growth. Health care added about 780,000 jobs in 2025, each a new hire who needs training; manufacturing lost about 156,000. Growth adds onboarding demand in health care and none in manufacturing.
- Decide and narrow. Clearpath picks health care, then narrows to ambulatory care (doctors' offices, outpatient and home care, the largest health care industry, growing 4.3% in real terms) and builds its first list by NAICS code and state.
At volume, finding the right buyer at each of thousands of employers is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in the list and drafts the outreach.
Next step: see how many employers there are in each industry in how many businesses are in the US.
Sources
- GDP by Industry: Value Added by Industry, annual tables (TVA101, TVA105, TVA110), data published September 30, 2026, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 30 September 2026
- GDP by Industry: Gross Output by Industry, annual table TGO105, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 30 September 2026
- GDP (Third Estimate), Industries, Corporate Profits, State GDP, and State Personal Income, 2nd Quarter 2026, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 30 September 2026
- Glossary: Value added, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed 30 October 2026
- Glossary: Gross output (GO), US Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed 30 October 2026
- Glossary: Imputations, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed 30 October 2026
- Current Employment Statistics (CES), national employment by industry, 2024 and 2025 monthly estimates, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
What is the biggest industry in the US?
By contribution to GDP, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, with $6.92 trillion of value added in 2025, 22.4% of GDP, according to the BEA. Almost half of that is housing, which includes rent BEA imputes to owner-occupied homes. By jobs, the biggest is health care and social assistance, with an average of 23.3 million payroll jobs in 2025, according to the BLS.
What are the top 5 industries in the US?
By value added in 2025: finance, insurance and real estate ($6.92 trillion), professional and business services ($3.94 trillion), government ($3.43 trillion), manufacturing ($2.93 trillion) and educational services, health care and social assistance ($2.68 trillion), from BEA's GDP by industry tables published on 30 September 2026. Together they produced 64.5% of GDP.
Which industry employs the most people in the US?
Health care and social assistance, with an average of 23.29 million jobs in 2025, 14.7% of all nonfarm payroll jobs, according to BLS data. It added about 780,000 jobs during the year, up 3.5%. Retail trade (15.44 million), local government (15.10 million) and food services and drinking places (12.27 million) are the next largest single industries.
What is the fastest-growing industry in the US?
Among BEA's sectors, information grew fastest in 2025, with real value added up 8.2%. Within it, data processing, internet publishing and other information services grew 15.7%, and computer systems design 12.5%. Wholesale trade (6.4%) and mining (5.4%) were next. Retail trade shrank 2.0% and other services 3.7% in real terms.
How big is manufacturing in the US economy?
Manufacturing produced $2.93 trillion of value added in 2025, 9.5% of GDP, and $7.23 trillion of gross output (sales), the second largest of any sector, according to the BEA. It averaged 12.63 million jobs in 2025, down 1.2% from 2024, according to the BLS. Chemical products ($579.4 billion) and food, beverage and tobacco products ($384.0 billion) were its largest industries by value added.