News Release
Summary Estimates for Multinational Companies: Employment, Sales, and Capital Expenditures for 2002
The tables in this release are available in an XLS spreadsheet and the entire release is available in PDF format.
Ralph Kozlow: (202) 606-9604 (analysis) BEA 04-16
Ray Mataloni: (202) 606-9867 (data)
Summary Estimates for Multinational Companies:
Employment, Sales, and Capital Expenditures for 2002
U.S. multinational companies (MNCs) employed 30.6 million workers worldwide
in 2002, of which 22.4 million were employed in the United States by U.S. parent
companies and 8.2 million were employed abroad by majority-owned foreign affiliates.
The employment of U.S. parents accounted for about one-fifth of total U.S. employment
in private industries. Capital expenditures by U.S. MNCs totaled $467.3 billion; U.S.
parents accounted for $350.6 billion and majority-owned foreign affiliates accounted for
$116.7 billion. Sales by U.S. parent companies totaled $6,483.2 billion, and those by
majority-owned foreign affiliates totaled $2,656.8 billion.
Majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs employed 5.4 million workers in
2002, accounting for 5 percent of total U.S. employment in private industries. Capital
expenditures by these affiliates totaled $115.1 billion and their sales totaled $2,052.7
billion.
For both U.S. MNCs and the majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs,
employment decreased for the second consecutive year in 2002. Employment by U.S.
MNCs decreased 1.5 percent in 2002, following a 3.0-percent decrease in 2001. U.S.
parent companies more than accounted for the decreases in both years; their employment
decreased 2.2 percent in 2002, following a 4.1-percent decrease in 2001. Employment by
majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. MNCs increased 0.6 percent in 2002 and 0.1
percent in 2001. Employment by majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs
decreased 3.0 percent in 2002, following a 0.7-percent decrease in 2001. The decreases
for U.S. parents and U.S. affiliates mirrored decreases in total U.S. employment in
private industries, which decreased 1.3 percent in 2002 following a slight decrease in
2001. Sales and capital expenditures of U.S. MNCs and majority-owned U.S. affiliates
also decreased in 2002.
Worldwide employment and capital expenditures of U.S. MNCs remained
concentrated in the United States in 2002: U.S. parents accounted for about three-
quarters, and majority-owned foreign affiliates for about one-quarter, of their combined
employment and capital expenditures. Although these shares remained high, they were
several percentage points below their 1988 values. The U.S.-parent share of MNC
activity can change for a number of reasons, and the changes do not uniformly
correspond to either additions to, or subtractions from, employment and capital
expenditures in the United States. Examples of factors that might be associated with a
change in the parent and affiliate shares of MNC activity include different rates of
economic growth in the United States and in specific markets where investment is
occurring abroad, the creation of new market opportunities abroad that cannot be served
by exports from the United States, and changes in the foreign-currency value of the U.S.
dollar. Additional discussion of data and analytical considerations may be found in an
article published in the March 2004 issue of the Survey of Current Business (see box
below).
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Accelerated Release of the MNC Estimates
As part of ongoing efforts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to improve the
timeliness of its estimates, this year, BEA has accelerated the release of summary
estimates for 2002 of employment, sales, and capital expenditures by U.S. parent
companies, by their foreign affiliates, and by U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs. These
estimates complement or update estimates that appear in an article in the March 2004
issue of the Survey of Current Business, "A Note on Patterns of Production and
Employment by U.S. Multinational Companies." Estimates based on more complete
source data, including country and industry detail, will be released later this year.
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* * *
TECHNICAL NOTE
The estimates presented in this release were constructed from data collected by
BEA in two distinct surveys of MNC operations: (1) a survey of U.S. MNCs that covers
the operations of both U.S. parent companies and their foreign affiliates, and (2) a survey
of the operations of U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs. Because a U.S. parent company
may itself be foreign-owned, there is some duplication between the data on U.S. parent
companies and on U.S. affiliates; thus, to avoid duplication, data on U.S. parents and U.S.
affiliates should not be added together to produce U.S. totals.
The estimates presented here pertain to nonbank U.S. parent companies and their
majority-owned nonbank foreign affiliates, and to majority-owned nonbank U.S.
affiliates of foreign MNCs. Data on all nonbank U.S. and foreign affiliates, including
affiliates that are not majority-owned, will be presented in the Survey of Current Business
later this year. The most recent data show that nonbank foreign affiliates that were not
majority-owned employed 1.6 million workers, and nonbank U.S. affiliates that were not
majority-owned employed 0.7 million workers, in 2001. Data on banks are collected
only in benchmark years. The most recent data on U.S. parents and foreign affiliates in
banking were presented in U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Final Results from the 1999
Benchmark Survey. These data show that U.S. bank parents employed 1.0 million
workers, and that bank and nonbank foreign affiliates of U.S. bank parents, plus bank
affiliates of U.S. nonbank parents, together employed 0.2 million workers in 1999. The
most recent data on U.S. affiliates in banking were presented in Foreign Direct
Investment in the United States: Final Results from the 1997 Benchmark Survey. These
data show that U.S. affiliates that were banks employed 0.1 million workers in 1997.
Data from the 2002 benchmark survey of foreign direct investment in the United States
are scheduled to be released later this year.
In addition to presenting data collected directly in its surveys of MNC operations,
BEA uses data collected on costs incurred and profits earned in production to estimate the
gross product (or value added) of U.S. parent companies, of majority-owned foreign
affiliates, and of U.S. affiliates of foreign companies. Gross product estimates indicate
the contribution of parents or affiliates to gross domestic product in the United States or
in foreign host countries. The latest estimates of the gross product of U.S. parent
companies and majority-owned foreign affiliates, which cover the year 2001, are
presented in "U.S. Multinational Companies: Operations in 2001," in the November 2003
issue of the Survey of Current Business. The latest estimates of the gross product of U.S.
affiliates of foreign companies, which also cover 2001, are presented in "U.S. Affiliates
of Foreign Companies: Operations in 2001," in the August 2003 issue of the Survey of
Current Business.
* * *
BEA's major national, regional, international, and industry estimates, the Survey
of Current Business, and BEA news releases are available on BEA's Web site:
www.bea.gov
Summary BEA estimates are available on recorded messages at the time of public
release at the following telephone numbers:
(202) 606-5306 Gross domestic product
(202) 606-5303 Personal income and outlays
(202) 606-5362 U.S. international transactions
Most of BEA's estimates and analyses are published in the Survey of Current
Business, BEA's monthly journal. Subscriptions and single copies of the printed Survey
are for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov; phone: (202) 512-1800; fax: (202) 512-2250; mail: Stop
SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001.
* * *
Table 1. Employment, Capital Expenditures, and Sales by Nonbank U.S. Multinational Companies, 1988-2002
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Thousands of employees Millions of dollars
------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. U.S. Majority- Capital expenditures/1/ Sales/2/
multinational parents owned ------------------------------------ ----------------------
companies foreign U.S. U.S. Majority- U.S. Majority-
affiliates multinational parents owned parents owned
companies foreign foreign
affiliates affiliates
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1988 ...... 22,498.1 17,737.6 4,760.5 223,814 177,203 46,611 2,828,209 927,886
1989 ...... 23,879.4 18,765.4 5,114.0 260,488 201,808 58,680 3,136,837 1,019,966
1990 ...... 23,785.7 18,429.7 5,356.0 274,614 213,079 61,535 3,243,721 1,208,349
1991 ...... 23,345.4 17,958.9 5,386.5 269,221 206,290 62,931 3,252,534 1,242,635
1992 ...... 22,812.0 17,529.6 5,282.4 272,049 208,834 63,215 3,330,886 1,291,649
1993 ...... 22,760.2 17,536.9 5,223.3 271,661 207,437 64,224 3,480,778 1,275,775
1994 ...... 24,272.5 18,565.4 5,707.1 303,364 231,917 71,447 3,990,013 1,435,901
1995 ...... 24,499.7 18,576.2 5,923.5 323,616 248,017 75,599 4,235,578 1,693,836
1996 ...... 24,867.0 18,790.0 6,077.0 340,510 260,048 80,462 4,478,970 1,868,588
1997 ...... 26,358.0 19,878.0 6,480.0 398,037 309,247 88,790 4,886,330 1,972,515
1998 ...... 26,592.9 19,819.8 6,773.1 411,155 317,184 93,971 4,970,138 1,971,909
1999/3/ ... 30,772.6 23,006.8 7,765.8 483,032 369,728 113,304 5,975,478 2,218,945
2000 ...... 32,056.6 23,885.2 8,171.4 506,950 396,313 110,637 6,695,166 2,507,433
2001/4/ ... 31,087.9 22,907.0 8,180.9 533,325 422,303 111,022 6,786,610 2,614,080
2002/5/ ... 30,633.9 22,400.3 8,233.6 467,278 350,582 116,695 6,483,192 2,656,834
Percent change at
annual rates:
1988-1999 ... 2.9 2.4 4.5 7.2 6.9 8.4 7.0 8.2
1999-2000 ... 4.2 3.8 5.2 5.0 7.2 -2.4 12.0 13.0
2000-2001 ... -3.0 -4.1 0.1 5.2 6.6 0.3 1.4 4.3
2001-2002 ... -1.5 -2.2 0.6 -12.4 -17.0 5.1 -4.5 1.6
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1. Total expenditures for property, plant, and equipment.
2. An MNC-wide total for sales is not provided because transactions among and within MNCs would be duplicated.
3. Break-in-series. (See the technical note on page 121 of the December 2002 issue of the Survey of Current Business for details.)
4. These estimates update those published in the November 2003 and March 2004 issues of the Survey of Current Business.
Revised estimates based on more complete source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
5. Advance estimates. Preliminary estimates based on more complete source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
NOTE: The data presented in this table cover nonbank U.S. MNCs only. Bank parents and affiliates, which report extensive data to other
U.S. Government agencies, are not required to report in BEA's annual surveys of the operations of U.S. MNCs. Some limited data
on the operations of bank parents and affiliates (including employment and sales) are reported in benchmark surveys of U.S. direct investment
abroad conducted by BEA every five years. The latest benchmark survey results cover the year 1999.
Table 2. U.S.-Parent Share of Selected Measures of the Operations
of Nonbank U.S. Multinational Companies
[Percent]
-----------------------------------------
Employment Capital
expenditures
-----------------------------------------
1988 ............ 78.8 79.2
1989 ............ 78.6 77.5
1990 ............ 77.5 77.6
1991 ............ 76.9 76.6
1992 ............ 76.8 76.8
1993 ............ 77.1 76.4
1994 ............ 76.5 76.4
1995 ............ 75.8 76.6
1996 ............ 75.6 76.4
1997 ............ 75.4 77.7
1998 ............ 74.5 77.1
1999 ............ 74.8 76.5
2000 ............ 74.5 78.2
2001/1/ ......... 73.7 79.2
2002/2/ ......... 73.1 75.0
-----------------------------------------
1. These estimates update those published in the November 2003 and March
2004 issues of the Survey of Current Business. Revised estimates based on more
complete source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
2. Advance estimates. Preliminary estimates based on more complete
source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
Table 3. Employment, Capital Expenditures, and Sales by Majority-Owned
Nonbank U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Companies, 1988-2002
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Thousands Millions of dollars
of ---------------------------------
employees Capital Sales
Expenditures/1/
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1988 ....................... 3,119.0 42,355 739,128
1989 ....................... 3,573.4 51,490 863,538
1990 ....................... 3,841.7 61,812 995,013
1991 ....................... 3,991.3 60,097 1,008,388
1992 ....................... 3,903.9 52,787 1,049,942
1993 ....................... 3,851.7 53,371 1,112,693
1994 ....................... 3,954.0 60,317 1,210,837
1995 ....................... 4,022.6 64,778 1,311,210
1996 ....................... 4,155.6 77,890 1,423,715
1997 ....................... 4,269.1 88,313 1,478,221
1998 ....................... 4,669.5 109,365 1,622,946
1999 ....................... 5,064.3 114,767 1,792,520
2000 ....................... 5,656.5 112,986 2,051,878
2001/2/ .................... 5,618.0 121,762 2,071,240
2002/3/ .................... 5,449.0 115,127 2,052,662
Percent change at
annual rates:
1988-1999 .................. 4.5 9.5 8.4
1999-2000 .................. 11.7 -1.6 14.5
2000-2001 .................. -0.7 7.8 0.9
2001-2002 .................. -3.0 -5.4 -0.9
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1. Total expenditures for property, plant, and equipment.
2. These estimates update those published in the August 2003 issue of the Survey of Current Business. Revised estimates
based on more complete source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
3. Advance estimates. Preliminary estimates based on more complete source data are scheduled to be released later this year.
NOTES: The data presented in this table cover nonbank affiliates only. Bank affiliates, which report extensive data to other
U.S. Government agencies, are not required to report in BEA's annual surveys of the operations of U.S. affiliates of foreign companies.
Some limited data on the operations of bank affiliates (including employment and sales) are reported in benchmark
surveys of foreign direct investment in the United States conducted by BEA every five years. Selected data on bank affiliates
from the 2002 benchmark survey are scheduled to be released later this year.
In contrast to the presentation in Table 1 for U.S. multinational companies (which includes data for U.S. parent companies), this
table does not include data on foreign parent companies or totals for foreign multinational companies, because they are not covered
in BEA's surveys.
