Detailed statistics on the worldwide activities of U.S. multinational enterprises in 2013, including the finances and operations of U.S. parent companies and their foreign affiliates, are now available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Available on BEA’s website, the statistics include information about U.S. multinational enterprises including: balance sheet and income statement details; employment and employee compensation; sales; value added–a measure of the enterprise’s contribution to gross domestic product in the United States or in the other countries where it operates; capital expenditures; trade in goods; and spending on research and development.
The statistics can be used to measure the scale of the global business activity of U.S. multinational enterprises or MNEs, as well as their impact on the U.S. economy and on other countries’ economies.
Here are a few highlights from the 2013 data:
- The current-dollar value added of U.S. MNEs rose 4.0 percent to $4.9 trillion in 2013 after rising 1.9 percent in 2012. The 2013 increase reflected a 6.8 percent increase in the value added of U.S. parents that was partly offset by a 2.2 percent decrease in the value added of their majority-owned foreign affiliates.
- Employment by U.S. MNEs increased 1.4 percent to 35.7 million workers in 2013 after increasing 1.1 percent in 2012. The 2013 increase reflected a 1.0 percent increase in the employment of U.S. parents and a 2.1 percent increase in the employment of majority-owned foreign affiliates. U.S. parents accounted for 19.7 percent of total U.S. private industry employment in 2013.
- U.S. MNE R&D expenditures rose 6.1 percent in 2013, reflecting growth for U.S. parents (5.6 percent) and for majority-owned foreign affiliates (8.4 percent).
- Fifteen countries—the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, China, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Italy, Norway, and Belgium —accounted for nearly two-thirds of value added by majority-owned foreign affiliates in 2013.
The newly released statistics also include revised 2012 statistics on the activities of U.S. MNEs.
BEA also produces statistics that cover U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises. These statistics will be released in November 2015.