US Manufacturing Profits Rise 66.7 Percent in a Year While Sales Rise 17.4 Percent
After tax profits at United States manufacturers reached 359.4 billion dollars in the second quarter, the Census Bureau said on Tuesday, up 64.1 billion dollars on the first quarter and 143.8 billion on the same quarter last year.
Sales rose too, to 2,324.1 billion dollars, but nothing like as fast. Profits grew 66.7 percent on the year and sales 17.4 percent, on our calculation, so profits grew 3.84 times as fast as the business that generated them.
The rate of return is where the gain shows
| All manufacturing, seasonally adjusted | Q2 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| After tax profits, billion dollars | 215.6 | 295.2 | 359.4 |
| Sales, billion dollars | 1,980.3 | 2,130.1 | 2,324.1 |
| Return, cents per dollar of sales | 10.88 | 13.86 | 15.46 |
As published. The bureau reports the third line as rate of return after taxes, cents per dollar of sales.
The return rose 4.58 cents on the year, a rise of 42.1 percent in the rate itself on our calculation. A manufacturer selling the same dollar of goods kept about two fifths more of it than a year earlier. Sales are reported in nominal terms and the release does not separate price from volume, so what lies behind the rate is not in this publication.
Durable goods carry the result. They produced 251.0 billion dollars of the profit on 1,200.6 billion of sales, which is 69.8 percent of the profit from 51.7 percent of the sales, on our calculation. Their return works out at 20.91 cents against 9.65 cents for non durable goods, also on our calculation, so the durable side runs at more than twice the profitability of the non durable side.
The other sectors are reported on a different basis
Mining, wholesale trade and the service industries are published without seasonal adjustment, so they are not directly comparable with the manufacturing figures above and are set out here on their own terms.
Mining made 31.6 billion dollars after tax on 126.5 billion of sales, against 17.5 billion a year earlier, a rise of 80.6 percent on our calculation. Wholesale trade made 35.1 billion on 1,146.7 billion of sales, a return of 3.06 cents per dollar on our calculation, the thinnest in the release.
Information made 214.4 billion dollars after tax on sales of 502.2 billion, a return of 42.7 cents per dollar on our calculation. That is the highest rate the release carries by a wide margin, on an unadjusted basis.
Professional and technical services, excluding legal, made 0.5 billion dollars, and the bureau says plainly that this is not statistically different from the losses it recorded in the previous quarter or a year earlier.
Why it matters: A profit rise of this size on a sales rise a quarter as large means the change is in the rate of return rather than in the volume of business, and the durable goods split shows where: the profitable half of American manufacturing is the half selling machinery, vehicles and equipment. The information sector’s 42.7 cents on the dollar, against 15.46 for manufacturing, is the sharper contrast in the release.
Outlook: The third quarter report is due on 7 December, a date the bureau states twice. The question it answers is whether 15.46 cents is a level or a peak, since the rate has now risen in both quarters reported here.
Sources: United States Census Bureau.
