Delaware: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment

Exports Support Jobs for Delaware's Workers

Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 2.7 percent of Delaware's total private-sector employment. Approximately one-eighth (12.2 percent) of all manufacturing workers in Delaware depend on exports for their jobs. (2006 data are the latest available.)

Note: Export-related employment data shown do not include manufacturing and non-manufacturing jobs involved in the export of non-manufactured goods, such as farm products, minerals, and services sold to foreign buyers. Indirect exports exclude imported items. The complete 2006 export-related employment series is available on our Export Related Jobs pages. Additional information on methodology used in the export-related employment series can be found in the U.S. Census Bureau's publication Exports from Manufacturing Establishments: 2006.

Source: State Export-Related Employment Project, International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census.

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Exports Sustain Hundreds of Delaware Businesses

A total of 757 companies exported from Delaware locations in 2006. Of those, 627 (83 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises, with fewer than 500 employees.

Small and medium-sized firms generated nine percent of Delaware's total exports of merchandise in 2006.

Source: International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division: Exporter Database.

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Foreign Investment Creates Jobs in Delaware

In 2006, foreign-controlled companies employed 25,200 Delaware workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Delaware in 2006 included the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France.

More than one-fifth of these jobs (21 percent, or 5,200 workers) were in the manufacturing sector in 2006.

Nearly one-sixth of all Delaware manufacturing workers in 2006 (15.6 percent) were employed by foreign-controlled companies, the seventh highest percentage among the 50 states.

Foreign investment in Delaware was responsible for 6.6 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2006.

Note: All figures exclude employment in banks affiliated with foreign companies.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Delaware Depends on World Markets

Delaware's export sales of merchandise in 2007 totaled $4.0 billion, up 113 percent ($2.1 billion) from $1.9 billion in 2003. That was the seventh highest percentage increase among the 50 states over that period.

Delaware exported to 144 foreign destinations in 2007. The state's leading market was the United Kingdom ($856 million), which alone accounted for 21 percent of Delaware's total exports in 2007. The United Kingdom was followed by Canada ($809 million), Germany ($467 million), Japan ($251 million), and China ($220 million).

Chemical manufactures, with 42 percent of the 2007 value ($1.7 billion), dominated the state's exports. Other important sectors included transportation equipment ($594 million), computers and electronic products ($563 million), and machinery manufactures ($325 million).

Source: Revised Origin of Movement State Export Series, Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division.

Caution: The Origin of Movement series allocates exports to states based on transportation origin, i.e., the state from which goods began their journey to the port (or other point) of exit from the United States. The transportation origin of exports is not always the same as the location where the goods were produced. Consequently, conclusions about "export production" in a state should not be made solely on the basis of the Origin of Movement state export figures.

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Delaware's Metropolitan Exports

In the first half of 2007, the metropolitan area of Dover exported $35 million in merchandise; Dover is the only metropolitan area with counties exclusively in Delaware. The Delaware city of Wilmington is included in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, which also contains parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. In the first half of 2007, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area exported $9.1 billion in merchandise.

Source: International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division: Metropolitan Export Series.

Caution: The Origin of Movement zip-based series allocates exports to metropolitan areas based on transportation origin, i.e., the metropolitan area from which goods began their journey to the port (or other point) of exit from the United States. The transportation origin of exports is not always the same as the location where the goods were produced. Consequently, conclusions about "export production" in a metropolitan area should not be made solely on the basis of the Origin of Movement zip-based export figures.

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