Office furniture spans manufacturing, workplace capacity, employee safety, and ergonomic equipment. The available U.S. measures below use different definitions: NAICS 337 covers furniture and related products, federal utilization concerns office space rather than furniture sales, and sit-stand findings summarize research studies.
Key Office Furniture Statistics
The most useful headline figures are:
- In August 2026, 330.6 thousand people were employed in U.S. furniture and related product manufacturing (NAICS 337), seasonally adjusted.
- In August 2026, 233.5 thousand U.S. NAICS 337 employees worked in production and nonsupervisory roles, seasonally adjusted.
- In Q1 2026, 18,021 private-industry establishments operated in U.S. furniture and related product manufacturing.
- In August 2026, average hourly earnings were $29.38 for all U.S. NAICS 337 employees.
- In August 2026, average weekly hours were 39.2 for all U.S. NAICS 337 employees.
- In August 2026, production and nonsupervisory employees averaged $25.34 per hour in U.S. NAICS 337.
- In 2025, 56,210 U.S. cabinetmakers and bench carpenters worked in an occupation common in furniture manufacturing.
- In 2025, 38,870 U.S. team assemblers worked in an occupation common in furniture manufacturing.
- In 2025, production supervisors had a U.S. occupation-wide median annual wage of $63,160.
- In 2024, U.S. furniture and related product manufacturing recorded 5 fatalities.
- In 2024, the U.S. NAICS 337 total recordable case rate was 3.5 per 100 full-time workers.
- In 2023, the U.S. federal government owned more than 500 million square feet of office space.
- In a 2023 federal estimate, agencies spent about $2 billion annually operating and maintaining office buildings regardless of utilization.
- During selected weeks from January through March 2023, 17 of 24 U.S. federal agencies had estimated headquarters capacity utilization of 25% or less.
- A 2019 scoping review included 53 sit-stand workstation studies across work, laboratory, and field settings.
- Across reviewed studies, sit-stand desks reduced average sitting time by 0.1 to 3.6 hours per day compared with regular desks.
- Across reviewed studies, sit-stand desks increased average standing time by 0.5 to 3.1 hours per day compared with regular desks.
Contents
- Key Office Furniture Statistics
- Office Furniture Industry Employment and Establishments
- Office Furniture Manufacturing Wages and Hours
- Office Furniture Occupations and Workforce Pay
- Office Furniture Workplace Safety Data
- Federal Office Space Utilization and Furniture Capacity Trends
- Sit-Stand Office Furniture and Measured Outcomes
Office Furniture Industry Employment and Establishments
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) NAICS 337 series is the closest broad industry measure in this dataset, but it is not an office-furniture-only series. It includes furniture and related product manufacturing, so the employment and establishment figures describe the wider subsector.
According to Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing: NAICS 337, seasonally adjusted employment in August 2026 was 330.6 thousand people, including 233.5 thousand production and nonsupervisory employees. The August employment figure was preliminary.
| Period | Private-industry establishments | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 17,964 | U.S. NAICS 337 |
| Q3 2025 | 17,996 | U.S. NAICS 337 |
| Q4 2025 | 17,992 | U.S. NAICS 337 |
| Q1 2026 | 18,021 | U.S. NAICS 337; preliminary quarter |
The same BLS source reports that state governments accounted for 18 establishments in Q2 2025 and 19 in Q1 2026. These are establishment counts for the full subsector, not office-furniture manufacturing alone.
Office Furniture Manufacturing Wages and Hours
Manufacturing pay and working-time data help describe the labor side of office furniture, while also requiring the same NAICS 337 scope caution. The monthly 2026 BLS figures below are for the broader U.S. subsector, and July and August values are preliminary where noted.
| Month in 2026 | All employees: hourly earnings | All employees: weekly hours | Production and nonsupervisory hourly earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| May | $29.38 | 39.0 | $24.56 |
| June | $29.63 | 39.0 | Not supplied |
| July | $30.21 | 39.6 | $25.32 |
| August | $30.20 | 39.2 | $25.34 |
Source: Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing: NAICS 337. The production and nonsupervisory June hourly figure was not included in the supplied series, so the table does not infer it.
A separate BLS table provides a not-seasonally-adjusted chronological view for production and nonsupervisory employees. Table B-8b reports hourly earnings of $22.71 in January 2024, $23.02 in February, $22.92 in March, and $22.97 in April for U.S. NAICS 337.
The corresponding average weekly earnings were $874.34 in January 2024, $902.38 in February, $907.63 in March, and $888.94 in April. These values are not seasonally adjusted and cover the full subsector.
Office Furniture Occupations and Workforce Pay
Occupation statistics show the kinds of work associated with furniture production, but they are not restricted to workers employed by furniture manufacturers. The BLS NAICS 337 page identifies the following U.S. occupation counts for 2025:
- 56,210 cabinetmakers and bench carpenters.
- 38,870 team assemblers.
- 15,350 first-line production supervisors.
- 14,590 woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders.
The occupation-wide 2025 wage measures provide a separate view of pay levels:
| Occupation | 2025 median pay | Pay unit |
|---|---|---|
| Carpenters | $26.26 | Per hour |
| Furniture finishers | $43,220 | Per year |
| Team assemblers | $40,040 | Per year |
| Upholsterers | $45,930 | Per year |
| Production supervisors | $63,160 | Per year |
These medians describe the occupations across the U.S., not only office furniture factories. They should therefore not be treated as direct substitutes for the industry-wide hourly earnings series above.
Office Furniture Workplace Safety Data
Workplace safety statistics are available for U.S. furniture and related product manufacturing rather than for office furniture alone. The BLS series recorded 7 fatalities in 2023 and 5 fatalities in 2024.
| 2024 safety measure | U.S. NAICS 337 result |
|---|---|
| Total recordable case rate | 3.5 per 100 full-time workers |
| Cases involving days away, restriction, or transfer | 2.1 per 100 full-time workers |
| Fatalities | 5 |
Source: Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing: NAICS 337. The BLS notes a series break beginning in 2023 because of NAICS 2022, so comparisons with earlier safety data require care.
The rates are incidence measures per 100 full-time workers, not percentages of all furniture products, establishments, or office workers. The fatality counts are subsector-wide annual observations.
Federal Office Space Utilization and Furniture Capacity Trends
Federal office utilization provides context for workplace capacity and potential furniture planning, but it does not measure furniture inventory or sales. The GAO report on underutilized federal buildings estimated that the U.S. federal government owned more than 500 million square feet of office space in 2023 and spent about $2 billion annually operating and maintaining office buildings regardless of utilization.
GAO reviewed headquarters utilization for 24 federal agencies across one week in each of January, February, and March 2023. The estimates were based on selected weeks and a GSA per-person capacity benchmark, so they were preliminary rather than a full-year census.
- Seventeen of the 24 agencies had estimated average headquarters capacity utilization of 25% or less during the sampled weeks.
- The highest utilization range reported for agencies in the sample was 40% to 49% of headquarters capacity.
A separate GAO report on post-pandemic office-space planning summarized a 2022 survey of 24 CFO Act agencies. Thirteen agencies said space-utilization data could help their planning, while 20 agencies reported collecting limited or no space-utilization data.
All 24 surveyed agencies expressed concerns about the costs of collecting space-utilization data. This is a reported agency concern, not an audited cost estimate, and the survey measures planning views rather than direct furniture demand.
Sit-Stand Office Furniture and Measured Outcomes
Sit-stand desks are among the office-furniture products with measured behavioral outcomes in the supplied evidence. The peer-reviewed scoping review, “The effect of sit-stand desks on office worker behavioral and health outcomes” included 53 studies from work, laboratory, and field settings.
The review found that compared with regular desks, sit-stand desks reduced average sitting time by 0.1 to 3.6 hours per day across studies. They increased average standing time by 0.5 to 3.1 hours per day.
| Review measure | Finding | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Included studies | 53 | Work, laboratory, and field settings |
| Sitting-time reduction | 0.1–3.6 hours/day | Range across studies versus regular desks |
| Standing-time increase | 0.5–3.1 hours/day | Range across studies versus regular desks |
| Median average sitting time | 1.3 hours/day | Median of intervention-study averages |
| Median average standing time | 1.4 hours/day | Median of intervention-study averages |
The review also reported that four studies covered 66 posture outcome measures, with outcomes ranging from body positioning to joint angles. The median sitting and standing values are medians of study averages, not population estimates.
The evidence has important scope limits: the studies were heterogeneous, generally small and short, and many participants were healthy, younger working adults. Discomfort measures were self-reported, so these findings describe measured study outcomes rather than a universal result for every office worker or every sit-stand desk.