Employment and Trade

The International Trade Administration is focused on job creation. Specifically, ITA works to create environments where U.S. companies can export more effectively and exporting U.S. companies can create more jobs. To support ITA’s efforts to create more American jobs, the Office of Industry Analysis assesses the impacts of various trade policies and issues on the U.S. economy and evaluates how they will affect U.S. employment. The Office of Industry Analysis also collects and evaluates employment data.

Export-Related Jobs

Exports of goods and services supported 10.3 million jobs in 2008. Export-supported jobs accounted for 6.9 percent of total U.S. employment in 2008. The value of total exports, as measured in this study, totaled nearly $1.7 trillion – or nearly $165,000 per export job in 2008. More information on export supported jobs is available in the joint study by the International Trade Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration:

Exports Support American Jobs

IAN’s Export Related Jobs site provides national- and industry-level estimates of jobs supported by exports of manufactured goods from the United States in 2008.

The estimates are the product of a joint statistical research project by the International Trade Administration and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The project was launched in mid-1999 in response to a growing need – by the public, Congress, and federal and state agencies – for timely and defensible data on the employment effects of U.S. international trade.

Export-Related Jobs Series Tables

U.S. Employment and Exports Program

This new program will provide U.S. export values and U.S. employment/unemployment figures by sector. Further, the program will provide data and assistance to U.S. exporters in their quest to find new markets for their products and services.

National Employment Outlook

Employment Publications

Projected Jobs Supported by Exports, 2009 and 2010, July 2011

The International Trade Administration’s 2010 report “Exports Support American Jobs” provided preliminary estimates for jobs supported by exports for 2009 and for the value of exports that support one job for 2009 and 2010. This Economic Brief attempts to improve projections, provide transparency in making the projections, and provides revised estimates for 2009 and 2010.  The revised estimates of jobs supported by exports are 8.7 million in 2009 and 9.2 million in 2010. The value of exports that supports one job was $164,000 in 2009 and $181,000 for 2010. That is, the value fell slightly from 2008 to 2009 because of the recession and softness in export prices. In 2010, the value increased to $181,000 as export prices and productivity strengthened.

Weekly Earnings in Export-Intensive U.S. Services Industries, March 2011

This paper analyzes the weekly earnings of workers in the U.S. services sector. It estimates the premium in labor earnings in U.S. services industries that are export-intensive. The calculations combine worker-level data on weekly earnings, educational attainment, occupational categories, and other demographic characteristics from the Current Population Survey with industry-level data on U.S. exports of services from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  It estimates that workers in export-intensive services industries earn 15 to 20 percent more than comparable workers in other industries.

Do Jobs in Export Industries Still Pay More? And Why? July 2010

This paper uses an econometric model to estimate the impact of exporting on the earnings of U.S. manufacturing workers. It examines a sample of the recent earnings of nearly 60,000 U.S. manufacturing workers. It estimates the impact on earnings of several worker characteristics, including the export intensity of the worker’s industry and the worker’s education, age, location, and occupation. It estimates that exports contribute an additional 18 percent to workers’ earnings on average in the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Employment Changes in U.S. Food Manufacturing: The Impact of Sugar Prices, February 2006

This paper focuses on employment issues in food manufacturing (including confectionery), cane refining, and related industries. In particular, the paper examines whether U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of the movement of manufacturing facilities offshore due, in material part, to the differential between U.S. and world sugar prices.

______________________________________

For more information please contact: Julian Richards