Majority-owned US affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises employed 14.0 million workers in US in 2022, up 1.5% from 2021; accounted for 31.7% of employment by US multinational enterprises worldwide: Dept. of Commerce

August 26, 2024 (press release) –

Worldwide employment by U.S. multinational enterprises increased 2.2 percent to 44.3 million workers in 2022 (preliminary) from 43.3 million workers in 2021 (revised), according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on the operations and finances of U.S. parent companies and their foreign affiliates.

Employment in the United States by U.S. parents increased 2.5 percent to 30.2 million workers in 2022 (table 1). U.S. parents accounted for 68.3 percent of worldwide employment by U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs), up from 68.1 percent in 2021 (chart 1). Employment abroad by majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. MNEs increased 1.5 percent to 14.0 million workers and accounted for 31.7 percent of employment by U.S. MNEs worldwide.

U.S. parents accounted for 22.6 percent of total private industry employment in the United States in 2022, down from 23.1 percent in 2021. Employment by U.S. parents was largest in manufacturing, in retail trade, and in “other industries,” which was led by transportation and warehousing. Employment abroad by majority-owned foreign affiliates was largest in India, Mexico, and the United Kingdom (table 4).

Worldwide current-dollar value added of U.S. MNEs increased 4.4 percent to $7.0 trillion. Value added by U.S. parents, a measure of their direct contribution to U.S. gross domestic product, increased 4.3 percent to $5.3 trillion (table 1). U.S parents accounted for 23.3 percent of total U.S. private-industry value added, down from 24.5 percent in 2021. Majority-owned foreign affiliate value added increased 4.6 percent to $1.6 trillion (chart 2). Value added by majority-owned foreign affiliates was largest in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland (table 3).

Worldwide expenditures for property, plant, and equipment of U.S. MNEs increased 11.4 percent to $1.0 trillion. Expenditures by U.S. parents accounted for $826.1 billion (table 1), and expenditures by majority-owned foreign affiliates accounted for $196.7 billion (chart 3).

Worldwide research and development expenditures of U.S. MNEs increased 10.8 percent to $521.5 billion. U.S. parents accounted for expenditures of $448.9 billion (table 1), and majority-owned foreign affiliates accounted for $72.6 billion (chart 3).

Additional statistics on the activities of U.S. parent companies and their foreign affiliates including sales, balance sheet and income statement items, compensation of employees, trade in goods, and more are available on BEA’s website. More industry detail for U.S. parents and more industry and country detail for foreign affiliates are also available on the website.

Updates to the statistics

Statistics for 2021 were revised to incorporate newly available and revised source data (table A). Preliminary statistics for 2021 were released in November 2023 and highlighted in “Activities of U.S. Multinational Enterprises in 2021” in the Survey of Current Business in December 2023.

Next release: August 2025
Activities of U.S. Multinational Enterprises, 2023

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