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

Jobs Supported by Exports, 1993-2011, October 2012

Jobs supported by exports increased to 9.7 million in 2011, up 0.6 million from 2010 and 1.2 million from 2009. Export-supported jobs accounted for 6.9 percent of total U.S. civilian employment in 2011.  In 2011, $1 billion of exports supported 5,080 jobs.  In 2010, the latest year for which disaggregated sectoral information is available, $1 billion of goods exports supported about 6,100 jobs, and $1 billion of services exports supported about 4,300 jobs, compared to 5,500 jobs supported by $1 billion of total exports. In 2010, jobs in the manufacturing sector accounted for 2.9 million, or almost a third, of the 9.1 million jobs supported by exports. In 2010, the private services sector accounted for 5.4 million export-supported jobs.

Export-Related Jobs Series Tables

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 2009.

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.

U.S. Employment and Exports Program

National Employment Outlook

This reports U.S. employment/unemployment figures. Further, it reports the monthly change in employment and unemployed persons by industry sector.

Employment Publications

Jobs Supported by Exports: An Update, March 2012

The 2011 MAS Economics Brief “Projected Jobs Supported by Exports, 2009 and 2010” provided revised estimates for 2009 and 2010 for the value of exports that support one job. This update, based on newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides jobs supported by U.S. exports over the period 2002 to 2011.  Jobs supported by exports increased to 9.7 million in 2011, up 1.2 million from the 2009 level of 8.5 million.  The 9.7 million export-supported jobs in 2011 is almost at the pre-recession peak of 9.8 million in 2008.  In 2011, every billion dollars of U.S. exports supported 5,080 jobs.  This is down from 5,998 jobs per billion dollars of U.S. exports in 2009.  Increases in export prices and labor productivity, at 11 percent and 6 percent respectively, drove the 15 percent decline in jobs per billion dollars of U.S. exports since 2009.

International Trade and Local Transportation Employment, March 2012

This paper examines how the expansion of international trade can significantly increase the level of employment in the transportation sector using an econometric model that quantifies the effect of U.S. exports on the level of transportation sector employment in different parts of the United States.  The expansion of U.S. exports between 2003 and 2010 added between 63,000 and 140,000 workers to the sector, with a central estimate of 101,000 workers.  This positive contribution of U.S. exports to transportation sector employment offsets some of the national decline in transportation employment over this period.  The 30.4 percent increase in the value of exports between 2003 and 2010 helped to limit the national decline in transportation employment to about one percent over this period.

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.

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For more information please contact: Julian Richards.