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Friday, August 21, 2020
Contact: Thomas Dail, (301) 278-9003

Activities of U.S. Multinational Enterprises, 2018
Worldwide employment by U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs) increased 1.4 percent to 43.0 million
workers in 2018 from 42.4 million in 2017.

Employment of U.S. Parents by Industry, 2018
Millions of employees

8

26%

7

5

22%

21%

6

Other

4
Food
3
2
1

10%

Computers

8%

6%

6%

Chemicals

Transportation

1%

0

Manufacturing

Mining

Wholesale
trade

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Retail
trade

Information Finance Professional, Other
and
scientific, industries
insurance
and
technical services

Highlights of the statistics on employment by U.S. parents in 2018:

•
•
•

Employment in the United States by U.S. parents increased 2.1 percent to 28.6 million workers
in 2018. U.S. parents accounted for 66.5 percent of worldwide employment by U.S. MNEs, up
from 66.1 percent in 2017.
U.S. parents accounted for 22.0 percent of total private industry employment in the United
States.
The manufacturing industry accounted for the largest share of employment by U.S. parents
(26.2 percent), followed by retail trade (20.6 percent). The “other industries” category, which
includes accommodation and food services and transportation and warehousing, accounted for
22.0 percent of U.S. parent employment.

BEA statistics—including GDP, personal income, the balance of payments, foreign direct investment, the input-output accounts, and economic
data for states, local areas, and industries—are available on the BEA Web site: www.bea.gov. E-mail alerts are also available.
NOTE: The next release in this series will present data for 2019 and will be available November 2021.
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce

Highlights of the statistics on employment by majority-owned foreign affiliates (MOFAs) in 2018:
•
•
•

Employment abroad by MOFAs of U.S. MNEs was nearly unchanged at 14.4 million workers and
accounted for 33.5 percent of employment by U.S. MNEs worldwide.
Employment abroad by MOFAs was largest in China, the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, and
Canada.
In China, employment by MOFAs was largest in manufacturing and accommodation and food
services. In Mexico, employment was largest in manufacturing, and in India it was largest in
professional, scientific, and technical services. Employment by MOFAs in the United Kingdom
and Canada was spread across many industries.

Employment of Majority-Owned Foreign Affiliates by Country, 2018
Country
China
United Kingdom
Mexico
India
Canada
Germany
Brazil
France
Japan
Philippines
Other
Total

Thousands of Employees
1,695
1,465
1,406
1,294
1,222
675
574
498
369
332
4,864
14,394

Other highlights of the statistics on the activities of U.S. multinational enterprises in 2018:
•
•
•

Worldwide current-dollar value added of U.S. MNEs increased 6.8 percent to $5.7 trillion. Value
added by U.S. parents increased by 7.8 percent to $4.2 trillion, representing 23.3 percent of
total U.S. private-industry value added. MOFA value added increased to $1.5 trillion.
Worldwide expenditures for property, plant, and equipment of U.S. MNEs increased 6.6
percent to $912.1 billion.
Worldwide research and development expenditures of U.S. MNEs increased 6.9 percent to
$381.4 billion.