The manufacturing PMI says rebound. The new money is narrow.

Advanced manufacturingChemicals, machinery, computers and electronics, transportation equipment+56,000

All other manufacturing-16,000

Manufacturing jobs, 12 months through September 2026

Item	Value (jobs)	Note
Advanced manufacturing	+56,000	Chemicals, machinery, computers and electronics, transportation equipment
All other manufacturing	-16,000

Advanced manufacturing is about 38% of factory employment and produced all of the net gain. Source: Gad Levanon, Burning Glass Institute, Labor Matters, Oct. 3, 2026; BLS Current Employment Statistics.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing PMI read 54.5% for September 2026, the ninth straight month of expansion, according to IndustryWeek’s report on the release. Orders are rising across most of the sector. But the September data published in October 2026 also shows the new money going to a short list of places. A few industries are hiring, contract machine shops and aerospace are buying machines, and the biggest construction starts are data centers.

If your 2027 plan assumes growth in all your markets because the PMI is above 50, check it against where that growth is actually landing.

What the September data showed

Five releases published between Oct. 1 and Oct. 21, 2026 measured August and September. The four below show where demand, hiring and spending went. The fifth, the Federal Reserve’s output report, shows who is lagging and comes up in the next section.

• ISM’s September Manufacturing PMI, released Oct. 1, came in at 54.5%. New orders rose to 55.3%, and 12 of 18 industries reported growth, including fabricated metal products, plastics and rubber, machinery, primary metals and nonmetallic mineral products. The prices index jumped 6.8 points to 77.9%.
• Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, found in BLS data that advanced manufacturing (his definition: chemicals, machinery, computers and electronics, and transportation equipment) added 56,000 jobs in the 12 months through September. Every other manufacturing industry combined lost 16,000. Advanced manufacturing is about 38% of factory employment and produced all of the net gain. “The rest of the factory sector is not hiring, and I don’t expect that to change soon,” he wrote on Oct. 3.
• AMT reported on Oct. 12 US manufacturing technology orders of $732.9 million in August, up 36.3% from a year earlier, and $4.76 billion through August, up 36.9%. Orders from contract machine shops grew faster than the overall market, and aerospace has been taking a growing share of orders.
• Dodge Construction Network reported on Oct. 21 that manufacturing construction starts fell 21% in September from August. The three largest nonresidential building projects started that month were data centers, at $4.6 billion, $4.3 billion and $2 billion. Through September, nonresidential starts are up 23.7% year to date.

What the manufacturing PMI does not tell you

Demand is broad enough that most of your customers are probably ordering, but the new money sits in the few end markets those releases name.

Autos are the visible laggard. The Federal Reserve’s industrial production release of Oct. 16 shows output of motor vehicles and parts fell 3.0% in September, while manufacturing output overall rose 0.3%.

If your 2026 pipeline leans on general industrial or automotive customers, 2027 growth has to come from a new end market or from taking share, and a PMI reading above 50 will not deliver either one. Keep watching it anyway, alongside the industry-level numbers; our 2027 release calendar for the PMI and seven other indicators lists when each one comes out.

The prices index matters too. A reading of 77.9% means far more purchasing managers paid higher prices in September than paid lower ones. Your customers are paying more for inputs, and so are you. Expect harder price conversations in the first quarter of 2027, in both directions. How much of 2026’s orders growth was price differs by industry, and our estimate of durable goods orders after price puts primary metals volume down 4.0% and machinery volume up 8.7%.

What to do before the 2027 plan is final

Each step below feeds a box in our one-page 2027 marketing plan for manufacturers.

1. Tag your pipeline by end market. Mark every open opportunity and your top 100 accounts as aerospace, data center, electronics, chemicals, automotive, general industrial or construction. In most CRMs that is an afternoon’s work, and it is the only way to see how exposed you are.
2. Compare that split to where the growth is. If only a small share of your pipeline sits in the growing end markets, pick one you can credibly serve. For data centers, start with who actually buys in the data center supply chain. Then plan the proof: one application story, one capability page, one target account list.
3. If you run a job shop, market the capacity before the RFQs arrive. AMT’s numbers say contract shops are buying machines faster than the market as a whole. If you added equipment this year, your equipment list and capabilities page should show it before the next round of RFQs.
4. Write the price-increase notice now. If your costs track the prices index, you will be explaining increases to distributors and customers in January. An early notice that spells out the reasons keeps the conversation about value instead of surprise. Our guide to the price increase letter and tariff surcharge notice compares 10 real notices manufacturers sent in 2025 and 2026.
5. Do not rebuild the plan on one month of starts. Manufacturing construction swings with a handful of megaprojects, and nonresidential starts are still up for the year.