The U.S. Census Bureau released third quarter data for seasonally adjusted sales and profits for manufacturing industries on Dec. 15, which showed that year-over-year wholesale trade sales were up a healthy margin while profits were flat.

The data showed that wholesale trade corporations posted 3Q sales of $963.3 billion — essentially flat sequentially vs. 2Q25, but up 6.5% year-over-year. Within that, durable goods sales of $411.9 billion (42.6% of total) fell 1.1% sequentially and jumped 10.5% year-over-year; while nondurable goods sales of $555.5 billion were down 0.6% sequentially and up 3.0% year-over-year.

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On the profits side, wholesale trade corporations (with assets of at least $50 million) totaled after-tax profits of $19.6 billion, flat sequentially vs. 2Q25 and up 2.6% year-over-year. Durable goods profits of $11.9 billion (60.4% of total) were up 8.6% sequentially and up 3.2% year-over-year, while nondurable profits of $7.8 billion jumped 17.7% sequentially and increased 2.6% year-over-year. 

Total Q325 wholesale trade operating profits of $27.3 billion fell 5.4% sequentially and fell 2.9% year-over-year. Durable goods operating profits of $15.5 billion increased 2.4%, while nondurable operating profits of $11.8 billion fell 5.9% sequentially and fell 9.2% year-over-year.

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Manufacturers

The data showed that U.S. manufacturing corporations posted Q325 seasonally adjusted sales of $2.03 trillion, up 21.7% sequentially and up 6.6% year-over-year.  Manufacturers posted Q325 after-tax profits of $259.2 billion, up 12.7% sequentially and up 41.5% year-over-year. 

Durable goods manufacturers had Q325 sales of $1.09 trillion, up 3.1% sequentially and up 11.6% year-over-year. Durable goods Q325 profits of $157.9 billion, up 12.6% sequentially and up 61.1% year-over-year.

Nondurable goods manufacturers had Q325 sales of $938.5 billion, up 1.2% sequentially and up 1.4% year-over-year. Nondurable goods had profits of $91.5 billion, up 12.8% sequentially and up 16.9% year-over-year.