Rhode Island: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment

Exports Support Jobs for Rhode Island's Workers

Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 3.8 percent of Rhode Island's total private-sector employment. Over one-sixth (17.9 percent) of all manufacturing workers in Rhode Island 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.

Back to top of Rhode Island report

Exports Sustain Thousands of Rhode Island Businesses

A total of 1,337 companies exported goods from Rhode Island locations in 2006. Of those, 1,162 (87 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 500 employees.

SMEs generated 47 percent of Rhode Island's total exports of merchandise in 2006, the fourth largest share among the states, and well above the national average of 29 percent.

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

Back to top of Rhode Island report

Foreign Investment Creates Jobs in Rhode Island

In 2006, foreign-controlled companies employed 19,500 workers in Rhode Island. Major sources of Rhode Island's jobs in 2006 were the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, and France.

Nearly one-sixth of these jobs (15 percent, or 3,000 workers) were in the manufacturing sector in 2006. Foreign-controlled companies accounted for 5.6 percent of total manufacturing employment in Rhode Island in 2006.

Foreign investment in Rhode Island was responsible for 4.5 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.

Back to top of Rhode Island report

Rhode Island Depends on World Markets

Rhode Island's export shipments of merchandise in 2007 totaled $1.6 billion, up 40 percent from the $1.2 billion exported in 2003.

Rhode Island exported to 154 foreign destinations in 2007. The state's largest market that year by far was NAFTA member Canada, which received goods exports of $536 million, or 32 percent of Rhode Island's total exports that year. Canada was followed by the United Kingdom ($96 million), Germany ($88 million), Mexico ($71 million), and Turkey ($69 million).

Rhode Island's leading manufactured export category is computers and electronic products, which alone accounted for $214 million, or 13 percent of Rhode Island's total export shipments in 2007. Other top manufactured export categories that year were miscellaneous manufactures ($202 million in exports), machinery manufactures ($179 million), and chemical manufactures ($165 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.

Back to top of Rhode Island report

Rhode Island's Metropolitan Exports

The metropolitan area of Providence-New Bedford-Fall River exported $1.8 billion in merchandise in the first half of 2007. This is the only metropolitan area with counties in Rhode Island, and it also includes some counties in Massachusetts.

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.

Back to top of Rhode Island report