US Manufacturing Capacity Utilization by Industry, 2024 Q3 to 2026 Q2
US manufacturing plants used 78.5 percent of their full production capacity in the second quarter of 2026, up from 75.5 percent in the first quarter, according to the Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization. Across 90 industry groups the rate ran from 48.3 percent (pesticides) to 98.3 percent (ethyl alcohol).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization, 2026 Quarter 2, Table 1 (posted 14 September 2026), pulled 14 October 2026. Rates are not seasonally adjusted.
All manufacturing, the last eight quarters
On the current basis, 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q2, the all-manufacturing rate moved between 74.7 and 78.5 percent; 2026 Q2 is the highest of the six. The 2024 quarters are on the earlier basis: the 2025 Quarter 2 release introduced the current industry groups and revised 2025 Q1 from 72.6 to 76.3 percent. On the earlier basis 2025 Q1 was only 1.7 points above 2024 Q4, so read that step mostly as a change in measurement, not in the factories.
Capacity utilization by industry group
The QPC does not publish one rate per 3-digit NAICS subsector. It publishes the 93 groups the Federal Reserve Board defines, mostly 4-digit industries or combinations; only textiles, textile products, apparel and leather (313 to 316) are published as 3-digit subsectors, and printing (3231) also covers all of subsector 323. We keep the 90 manufacturing groups as published, with their subsector. Click a column to sort; "not published" means Census gives no rate for that cell.
| NAICS code, subsector | earlier sample | earlier sample | 2026 Q2 | 2026 Q2 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All manufacturing | 74.2 | 70.9 | 76.3 | 77.3 | 77.3 | 74.7 | 75.5 | 78.5 | 1.2 | under 50% |
| Animal food; seafood product preparation and packaging; and bakery and tortilla mfg. | 73.5 | 72.1 | 78.7 | 77.5 | 81.3 | 80.5 | 76.5 | 72.9 | 3.0 | under 50% |
| Grain and oilseed milling | not published | not published | 81.3 | 83.1 | 79.3 | 83.3 | 79.0 | 80.9 | 5.9 | under 50% |
| Sugar and confectionary product, fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food mfg. | 70.5 | 69.0 | 70.3 | 72.3 | 74.1 | 73.2 | 73.6 | 72.7 | 6.7 | under 50% |
| Dairy product mfg. | not published | not published | 81.9 | 80.6 | 80.5 | 79.1 | 77.1 | 79.4 | 3.4 | under 50% |
| Animal slaughtering and processing | not published | not published | 80.9 | 77.6 | 80.8 | 79.3 | 78.1 | 79.0 | 2.6 | under 50% |
| Snack food mfg. | 70.3 | 82.7 | 78.8 | 77.2 | 75.5 | 81.4 | 76.7 | 80.2 | 6.2 | under 50% |
| Coffee and tea mfg. | 77.7 | 83.3 | 72.5 | 72.2 | 76.6 | 66.0 | 65.4 | 71.0 | 8.9 | under 50% |
| Flavoring syrup and concentrate; seasoning and dressing; and all other food mfg. | 72.3 | 70.3 | 76.3 | 75.8 | 74.1 | 72.6 | 73.9 | 73.1 | 5.0 | under 50% |
| Beverage mfg. | 70.2 | 67.8 | 69.7 | 64.0 | 66.0 | 59.2 | 64.6 | 67.5 | 5.9 | under 50% |
| Tobacco mfg. | 56.4 | 57.2 | 62.8 | 50.8 | 51.8 | 62.0 | 62.7 | 61.7 | 27.1 | under 50% |
| Textile mills mfg. | not published | not published | 69.5 | 74.4 | 72.0 | 73.2 | 77.8 | 75.5 | 5.1 | under 50% |
| Textile product mills mfg. | not published | not published | 61.8 | 72.5 | 61.4 | 53.1 | 64.8 | 54.5 | 9.6 | under 50% |
| Apparel mfg. | not published | not published | 86.0 | 75.5 | 67.5 | 67.8 | 70.1 | 69.7 | 17.9 | under 50% |
| Leather and allied product mfg. | not published | not published | 66.6 | 69.5 | 63.0 | 61.9 | 75.2 | 68.3 | 20.8 | under 50% |
| Sawmills and wood preservation | 65.7 | 60.6 | 68.6 | 77.7 | 68.9 | 69.7 | 71.1 | 76.5 | 6.3 | under 50% |
| Veneer, plywood, and engineered wood product mfg. | 67.7 | 66.9 | 68.9 | 69.3 | 69.5 | 63.4 | 69.8 | 75.5 | 6.7 | under 50% |
| Other wood product mfg. | 73.4 | 71.9 | 77.4 | 75.3 | 81.2 | 81.3 | 70.7 | 73.3 | 4.7 | under 50% |
| Pulp mills | 80.6 | not published (D) | 84.0 | 81.7 | 73.0 | 87.1 | 89.5 | 88.2 | Z | under 50% |
| Paper mills | 88.1 | 89.6 | 86.2 | 87.6 | 88.5 | 86.4 | 88.1 | 87.4 | 3.8 | under 50% |
| Paperboard mills | 91.5 | 82.5 | 86.0 | 96.7 | 92.6 | 96.4 | 93.2 | 97.4 | 1.0 | under 50% |
| Converted paper product mfg. | 79.7 | 80.9 | 79.7 | 84.6 | 85.3 | 83.0 | 86.1 | 88.8 | 2.3 | under 50% |
| Printing and related support activities | 61.2 | 67.3 | 76.4 | 72.9 | 83.0 | 78.1 | 79.2 | 79.8 | 3.2 | under 50% |
| Petroleum refineries | 87.8 | 85.6 | 86.6 | 90.2 | 82.6 | 90.0 | 89.1 | 86.8 | 2.0 | under 50% |
| Asphalt paving, roofing, and saturated materials; and all other petroleum and coal products mfg. | 65.5 | 73.0 | 57.6 | 68.2 | 71.2 | 59.5 | 54.1 | 65.6 | 7.1 | under 50% |
| Petrochemical mfg. | 71.4 | 91.2 | 80.0 | 73.1 | 85.9 | 76.0 | 69.2 | 73.6 | 12.1 | 50% or more |
| Ethyl alcohol mfg. | 95.1 | 93.8 | 93.6 | 98.7 | 96.4 | 93.9 | 88.0 | 98.3 | 1.2 | under 50% |
| Cyclic crude, intermediate, and gum and wood chemical; and all other basic organic chemical mfg. | 65.2 | 57.0 | 51.6 | 61.9 | 62.5 | 47.5 | 59.6 | 63.0 | 7.7 | under 50% |
| Industrial gases; synthetic dye and pigment; and other basic inorganic chemical mfg. | 76.8 | 78.5 | 75.8 | 77.3 | 78.7 | 75.5 | 76.4 | 74.3 | 5.9 | under 50% |
| Plastics material and resin mfg. | 75.0 | 73.4 | 66.5 | 76.5 | 79.0 | 76.6 | 75.6 | 81.5 | 4.5 | 50% or more |
| Synthetic rubber mfg. | 55.3 | 46.3 | 64.5 | 67.5 | 66.9 | 76.8 | 73.0 | 83.1 | 6.0 | under 50% |
| Artificial and synthetic fibers and filaments mfg. | 85.3 | 80.6 | 69.7 | 76.9 | 89.5 | 66.9 | 71.3 | 75.3 | 9.0 | under 50% |
| Fertilizer and compost mfg. | 53.5 | 53.4 | 83.8 | 86.6 | 84.1 | 66.4 | 80.9 | 84.5 | 19.2 | under 50% |
| Pesticide and other agricultural chemical mfg. | 74.8 | 68.0 | 75.4 | 67.9 | 50.7 | 66.5 | 78.8 | 48.3 | 2.0 | under 50% |
| Pharmaceutical and medicine mfg. | 69.6 | 61.9 | 83.9 | 82.9 | 84.8 | 85.3 | 80.1 | 83.8 | 3.1 | under 50% |
| Paint, coating, and adhesive mfg. | 62.3 | 54.8 | 63.5 | 64.2 | 63.1 | 61.2 | 66.1 | 74.2 | 4.1 | under 50% |
| Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation mfg. | 72.8 | 66.1 | 62.6 | 65.2 | 62.7 | 59.7 | 62.7 | 70.9 | 5.0 | under 50% |
| Other chemical product and preparation mfg. | 77.2 | 73.0 | 70.1 | 67.8 | 58.6 | 60.8 | 67.2 | 70.7 | 3.0 | under 50% |
| Plastics product mfg. | 70.4 | 64.5 | 71.6 | 73.0 | 72.7 | 68.5 | 68.7 | 73.0 | 3.9 | under 50% |
| Tire mfg. | 67.4 | 81.7 | 79.3 | 86.8 | 61.9 | 67.1 | 86.7 | 91.9 | 5.8 | under 50% |
| Rubber and plastic hoses and belting; and other rubber product mfg. | 63.6 | 60.0 | 69.5 | 69.3 | 67.4 | 65.9 | 74.6 | 79.4 | 3.8 | under 50% |
| Clay product and refractory mfg. | 73.8 | 73.4 | 71.9 | 70.9 | 71.6 | 68.6 | 72.3 | 64.4 | 2.9 | under 50% |
| Glass and glass product mfg. | 85.5 | 85.7 | 86.3 | 92.1 | 92.8 | 88.2 | 88.5 | 90.5 | 3.3 | under 50% |
| Cement mfg. | 74.7 | 66.5 | 62.4 | 69.7 | 76.6 | 70.4 | 46.2 | 76.6 | 9.3 | under 50% |
| Ready-mix concrete; concrete pipe, brick, and block; and other concrete product mfg. | 76.9 | 69.8 | 67.4 | 60.5 | 70.0 | 66.5 | 57.4 | 57.3 | 7.5 | under 50% |
| Lime and gypsum product mfg. | 95.2 | 87.0 | 87.5 | 90.4 | 85.7 | 82.7 | 88.0 | 80.0 | 12.2 | under 50% |
| Other nonmetallic mineral product mfg. | 83.8 | 81.7 | 83.8 | 79.4 | 79.8 | 72.4 | 76.8 | 80.8 | 3.4 | under 50% |
| Iron and steel mills and ferroalloy mfg.; and steel product mfg. from purchased steel | 67.1 | 65.9 | 75.7 | 72.8 | 71.9 | 68.8 | 72.1 | 76.6 | 3.2 | 50% or more |
| Alumina and aluminum production and processing | 81.9 | 79.6 | 71.4 | 73.0 | 69.9 | 58.0 | 67.6 | 68.5 | 11.3 | 50% or more |
| Nonferrous metal (except aluminum) production and processing | 76.2 | 72.5 | 74.1 | 81.2 | 76.5 | 74.8 | 77.9 | 80.0 | 4.7 | 50% or more |
| Foundries | 56.5 | 52.9 | 74.0 | 77.2 | 76.8 | 73.3 | 77.9 | 80.8 | 3.2 | under 50% |
| Forging and stamping; cutlery, handtool, boiler, tank, shipping container, hardware, and spring and wire mfg. | 67.9 | 70.5 | 82.3 | 81.9 | 81.8 | 80.0 | 77.6 | 78.3 | 3.3 | under 50% |
| Architectural and structural metals mfg. | not published | not published | 68.6 | 78.1 | 78.9 | 75.9 | 75.4 | 83.9 | 7.3 | under 50% |
| Machine shops; turned product; and screw, nut and bolt mfg. | not published | not published | 82.6 | 81.9 | 82.1 | 75.6 | 78.5 | 81.4 | 2.2 | under 50% |
| Coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities mfg. | not published | not published | 75.9 | 78.4 | 74.9 | 72.7 | 70.4 | 72.4 | 5.8 | under 50% |
| Metal valve mfg. | not published | not published | 60.1 | 69.3 | 70.7 | 70.3 | 68.1 | 69.3 | 4.4 | under 50% |
| Ball and roller bearing mfg. | not published | not published | 57.0 | 58.2 | 69.0 | 61.9 | 63.1 | 64.4 | 2.8 | under 50% |
| Small arms ammunition, ammunition, small arms, ordnance and ordnance accessories mfg. | not published | not published | 64.5 | 70.3 | 67.5 | 75.1 | 67.0 | 72.4 | 2.9 | under 50% |
| Fabricated pipe and pipe fitting and all other miscellaneous fabricated metal product mfg. | not published | not published | 73.5 | 73.1 | 73.0 | 67.2 | 70.4 | 76.8 | 5.5 | under 50% |
| Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery mfg. | 57.1 | 56.2 | 66.4 | 67.3 | 59.3 | 60.9 | 63.5 | 71.2 | 6.1 | under 50% |
| Industrial machinery mfg. | 72.8 | 79.1 | 87.0 | 82.3 | 86.2 | 82.3 | 76.3 | 78.4 | 4.2 | under 50% |
| Commercial and service industry machinery mfg. | 66.9 | 63.9 | 88.2 | 90.3 | 89.9 | 82.5 | 83.8 | 85.3 | 9.8 | under 50% |
| Ventilation, heating, air-conditioning, and commercial refrigeration equipment mfg. | 75.4 | 68.5 | 63.3 | 69.4 | 71.7 | 73.6 | 80.4 | 77.1 | 5.8 | under 50% |
| Metalworking machinery mfg. | 71.5 | 72.7 | 73.6 | 76.2 | 77.7 | 73.5 | 69.9 | 74.9 | 5.2 | under 50% |
| Engine, turbine, and power transmission equipment mfg. | 69.4 | 69.9 | 66.8 | 73.3 | 68.7 | 63.1 | 68.9 | 72.2 | 6.8 | under 50% |
| Other general purpose machinery mfg. | 75.6 | 74.7 | 76.3 | 77.4 | 75.9 | 75.2 | 80.5 | 83.4 | 5.4 | under 50% |
| Computer and peripheral equipment mfg. | 60.5 | 81.8 | 55.7 | 65.6 | 62.5 | 57.8 | 64.2 | 60.4 | 4.8 | under 50% |
| Communications equipment mfg. | 54.6 | 56.2 | 51.6 | 47.8 | 43.9 | 49.6 | 45.1 | 50.2 | 7.0 | under 50% |
| Audio and video equipment mfg.; and manufacturing and reproducing magnetic and optical media | 93.3 | 91.3 | 58.9 | 57.7 | 62.5 | 58.0 | 91.4 | 85.3 | 3.7 | under 50% |
| Bare printed circuit board; capacitor, resistor, coil, transformer, and other inductor; electronic connector; printed circuit assembly (electronic assembly); and other electronic component mfg. | 74.6 | 78.9 | 73.7 | 78.8 | 79.2 | 77.6 | 83.9 | 87.5 | 2.3 | under 50% |
| Semiconductor and related device mfg. | 73.5 | 69.2 | 75.5 | 74.6 | 72.0 | 70.7 | 71.6 | 71.4 | 5.2 | under 50% |
| Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments mfg. | 82.1 | 84.0 | 78.0 | 86.1 | 83.8 | 84.2 | 81.5 | 73.4 | 11.8 | under 50% |
| Electric lighting equipment mfg. | 70.2 | 73.5 | 57.4 | 48.7 | 83.3 | 88.5 | 79.7 | 83.6 | 8.9 | under 50% |
| Household appliance mfg. | 63.3 | 62.8 | 58.1 | 60.4 | 62.1 | 52.8 | 53.1 | 56.5 | 4.2 | under 50% |
| Electrical equipment mfg. | not published | not published | 83.7 | 78.8 | 76.4 | 77.4 | 73.5 | 78.1 | 4.3 | under 50% |
| Battery mfg. | not published | not published | 67.3 | 90.6 | 80.1 | 57.3 | 53.2 | 51.7 | 35.3 | under 50% |
| Communication and energy wire and cable mfg. | not published | not published | 88.4 | 91.4 | 88.5 | 89.6 | 92.2 | 97.6 | 1.1 | under 50% |
| Wiring device and all other electrical equipment and component mfg. | not published | not published | 82.1 | 81.0 | 82.2 | 81.2 | 79.4 | 88.6 | 4.8 | under 50% |
| Automobile and light duty motor vehicle mfg. | not published | not published | 90.7 | 88.7 | 88.9 | 85.6 | 86.1 | 90.4 | 4.1 | 50% or more |
| Heavy duty truck mfg. | 64.2 | 60.6 | 79.1 | 63.0 | not published (D) | 57.8 | 42.5 | 74.8 | 11.1 | 50% or more |
| Motor vehicle body and trailer mfg. | 68.1 | 59.7 | 73.3 | 77.2 | 72.3 | 73.0 | 74.0 | 69.2 | 4.6 | under 50% |
| Motor vehicle parts mfg. | 77.3 | 77.6 | 81.0 | 75.4 | 77.1 | 70.6 | 72.7 | 73.8 | 5.6 | under 50% |
| Aerospace product and parts mfg. | 68.1 | 42.9 | 70.2 | 81.3 | 84.1 | 70.0 | 76.2 | 69.8 | 0.6 | under 50% |
| Railroad rolling stock; ship and boat building; and other transportation equipment mfg. | 55.1 | 53.6 | 60.4 | 59.8 | 59.8 | 61.0 | 53.6 | 58.0 | 4.1 | under 50% |
| Household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet mfg. | 69.0 | 64.4 | 77.3 | 78.1 | 74.0 | 69.3 | 71.5 | 75.4 | 4.0 | under 50% |
| Office furniture (incl. fixtures) mfg. | 77.9 | 70.3 | 73.2 | 78.2 | 73.0 | 70.8 | 70.5 | 72.3 | 4.1 | 50% or more |
| Other furniture related product mfg. | 74.2 | 56.3 | 90.2 | 59.0 | 58.5 | 55.7 | 41.3 | 74.9 | 22.5 | under 50% |
| Medical equipment and supplies mfg. | 62.0 | 62.0 | 80.0 | 82.0 | 80.3 | 77.2 | 77.6 | 79.4 | 3.4 | under 50% |
| Jewelry, silverware, sporting and athletic goods, and doll, toy and game mfg. | 80.4 | 79.7 | 76.7 | 81.6 | 78.4 | 84.7 | 81.8 | 83.3 | 8.9 | under 50% |
| Office supplies (except paper) and sign mfg. | 74.6 | 81.7 | 77.2 | 77.9 | 85.3 | 85.2 | 83.2 | 83.3 | 7.9 | under 50% |
| All other miscellaneous mfg. | 76.3 | 76.9 | 79.4 | 82.6 | 79.9 | 78.9 | 78.9 | 87.2 | 4.1 | under 50% |
Full production capacity utilization rate, percent, not seasonally adjusted. Columns 2024 Q3 and 2024 Q4 come from the earlier sample and grouping. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, QPC Table 1, releases 2024 Quarter 4 to 2026 Quarter 2, pulled 14 October 2026.
What the 2026 Q2 numbers show
- 36 of 90 groups ran above the all-manufacturing rate of 78.5 percent and 31 were at or above 80 percent; 44 of 90 were higher than in 2025 Q2.
- The rates are not seasonally adjusted, so compare the same quarter a year earlier: cement went from 46.2 percent in 2026 Q1 to 76.6 percent in 2026 Q2, against 69.7 percent in 2025 Q2.
- Small industries are noisy: 11 groups have a standard error of 10 points or more, and batteries for 2025 Q4 were revised from 92.9 to 57.3 percent one release later.
How to use these numbers in your plant
The QPC compares actual production with full production capability: what the plant could make with the machinery in place, allowing normal downtime, on the shifts and hours it could sustain on a realistic work schedule (QPC form instructions). A shift you could run but do not schedule counts as unused capacity, while OEE only looks inside planned time. The QPC's separate national emergency rate assumes close to 168 hours a week; the OEE measure that counts every calendar hour is TEEP. At the all-manufacturing average of 66.0 plant hours a week, loading is 39.3 percent (66.0 ÷ 168), so TEEP cannot pass 39.3 percent even at 100 percent OEE.
- Work out your own ratio, last quarter's output against a realistic full schedule, with the production capacity calculator.
- Split the gap: unscheduled hours are a loading question (orders, staffing), losses inside scheduled hours belong in the OEE calculator, and the TEEP calculator shows both.
- Use your industry group as context, not a target, after checking its standard error and coverage flag. The QPC measures dollar value, not units, unadjusted for price changes.
If you want the losses inside planned time tracked per machine and per shift, the platform we point plants to is Fabrico.
Method
What we pulled. On 14 October 2026 a script downloaded the eight QPC quarterly workbooks below from the QPC tables page and read sheet "FULL Utilization Rates" (Table 1): the full utilization rate, its standard error, the coverage flag c, and average plant hours per week with its standard error. Each workbook holds the current quarter and a revised previous one.
- 2024 Quarter 3 tables (xlsx), file dated 2024-12-10: first estimates only, for the revision check
- 2024 Quarter 4 tables (xlsx), file dated 2025-03-06: rates for 2024 Q3
- 2025 Quarter 1 tables (xlsx), file dated 2025-06-06: rates for 2024 Q4
- 2025 Quarter 2 tables (xlsx), file dated 2025-09-17: rates for 2025 Q1
- 2025 Quarter 3 tables (xlsx), file dated 2025-12-10: rates for 2025 Q2
- 2025 Quarter 4 tables (xlsx), file dated 2026-03-24: rates for 2025 Q3
- 2026 Quarter 1 tables (xlsx), file dated 2026-09-10: rates for 2025 Q4
- 2026 Quarter 2 tables (xlsx), file dated 2026-09-14: rates for 2026 Q1 and 2026 Q2
Rows. All 91 manufacturing rows of the 2026 Quarter 2 release: all manufacturing (NAICS 31-33) and 90 groups, without the three publishing rows (NAICS 513), which Census also leaves out of all manufacturing.
Values. Each quarter takes its most recent published value, the previous-quarter column of the next release; 2026 Q2 is a first estimate. Census revised 428 of the 578 cells that have a first and a later estimate, including all 72 comparable 2025 Q1 cells, first published on the 2017-based grouping, so part of that is a change in measurement; without 2025 Q1, 356 of 506.
The 2025 grouping change. From the 2025 Quarter 2 release the groups follow 2022 NAICS. A 2024 rate is used only when the older release has a row with exactly the same NAICS codes, checked against the Census 2017 and 2022 code lists. 19 groups have no match and read "not published" for 2024; Census withheld two more cells (D): pulp mills in 2024 Q4 and heavy duty trucks in 2025 Q3.
Computation. None: every rate is the Census figure to one decimal, as printed. The subsector is the code's first three digits, named from Table 3a. We build no 3-digit averages: Census does not publish the weights. Counts, the 2 standard error band and the 39.3 percent loading are our arithmetic. The CSV has one row per group and quarter (728 rows), every flag and symbol kept.
CSV columns
- naics_codes, industry_group
- Census NAICS code(s) and name of the group, exactly as printed in the 2026 Quarter 2 release.
- naics_subsector, naics_subsector_name
- First three digits of the code and the Census name from Table 3a.
- year, quarter, period
- The quarter the rate describes.
- full_utilization_rate_pct, standard_error
- Census Table 1 values, one decimal, or the symbol Census prints instead: D withheld to avoid disclosing individual companies, Z less than 0.05. Empty where Census has no rate on the current grouping.
- census_coverage_flag
- "under 50 percent" where Census prints c, "50 percent or more" for other published rates, empty where no rate is published.
- avg_plant_hours_per_week, plant_hours_standard_error
- Census Table 1 values. D withheld, S does not meet publication standards, NA not available, Z less than 0.05.
- value_status, census_release, source_url
- Whether a rate is published, and the exact release and file it comes from.
Cite this page
OEE Lab. (2026, October 14). US manufacturing capacity utilization by industry, 2024 Q3 to 2026 Q2 [Data set]. https://oeelab.com/manufacturing-capacity-utilization-by-industry
Please credit the original source too: U.S. Census Bureau. (2026). Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization: 2026 Quarter 2 [Data set]. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/qpc/data/tables.html
License. Our compilation (table, CSV, chart and text) is CC BY 4.0: reuse it, also commercially, with a credit and a link to this page. The underlying QPC figures are a U.S. government work and in the public domain in the United States (17 U.S.C. 105).
FAQ
What is the current capacity utilization rate for US manufacturing?
78.5 percent in 2026 Q2, the latest quarter the Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization has published (posted 14 September 2026), against 75.5 percent in 2026 Q1 and 77.3 percent in 2025 Q2. The rates are not seasonally adjusted.
Which manufacturing industries run closest to full capacity?
In 2026 Q2: ethyl alcohol (98.3 percent), communication and energy wire and cable (97.6) and paperboard mills (97.4). Lowest: pesticides and other agricultural chemicals (48.3), communications equipment (50.2) and batteries (51.7, standard error 35.3).
Is capacity utilization the same as OEE?
No. Capacity utilization compares output with a realistic full schedule, so shifts a plant could run but does not count as unused. OEE only measures losses inside planned production time. TEEP, OEE times the planned share of calendar time, also counts unscheduled time.
Source: QPC form instructions, read 14 October 2026.
Is this the same as the Federal Reserve's capacity utilization rate?
No. The Federal Reserve G.17 rate is monthly: a seasonally adjusted output index divided by a capacity index. The Fed uses QPC data to estimate capacity, but QPC rates are quarterly ratios of actual to full production value and are not seasonally adjusted.
Source: About the G.17, QPC FAQ, read 14 October 2026.
Why do some industries show "not published" for 2024?
From the 2025 Quarter 2 release Census publishes groups based on 2022 NAICS. Where a group was split or merged, such as textile mills or automobiles and light duty motor vehicles, older releases have no matching rate. Census says its current sample was introduced in the first quarter of 2025.
Source: QPC methodology, read 14 October 2026.