North Dakota: A Small-State Economy With Outsized Plants
North Dakota's employer base is small and unusually industrial for its size. The 2023 County Business Patterns counts 25,402 employer establishments statewide in North Dakota, about 95.2% of them with fewer than 50 employees, and its largest sectors by count are construction, health care, retail and professional services. Manufacturing is not the state's largest sector by count, 695 establishments, but its plants carry 29,264 employees, the pattern of a state whose plants are bigger than its business base, per the 2023 County Business Patterns. The Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation describes manufacturing as the bedrock of the regional economy across the Fargo Moorhead area and counts Bobcat, John Deere, CNH and Marvin Windows among the firms operating in its market. The state's headline industries, agriculture and energy, mostly reach the metro as processing, logistics and equipment work.
25,402 employer establishments statewide in North Dakota, about 95% of them with fewer than 50 employees
- U.S. Census Bureau: 2023 County Business Patterns: State file (cbp23st) (2023 CBP; retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corp.: Manufacturing (undated current page; retrieved 2026-10-08)