In 2023, worldwide employment by US multinational enterprises (MNEs) declined by 0.4% to 43.9 million workers, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Employment within the US by parent companies fell 0.8% to 29.9 million, while jobs at foreign affiliates rose slightly to 14 million. US MNEs’ global value added decreased 0.6% to $6.9 trillion, with US parents contributing $5.3 trillion. However, spending on property, plant, and equipment rose 7.5% to $1.1 trillion, and R&D spending also increased 7.5% to $558.3 billion. The largest foreign employment was in India, Mexico, and the UK, while value added abroad was highest in the UK, Canada, and Ireland. They write:
Worldwide employment by U.S. multinational enterprises decreased 0.4 percent to 43.9 million workers in 2023 (preliminary) from 44.1 million workers in 2022 (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 decreased 0.8 percent to 29.9 million workers in 2023. U.S. parents accounted for 68.1 percent of worldwide employment by U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs), down from 68.3 percent in 2022. Employment abroad by foreign affiliates of U.S. MNEs increased 0.2 percent to 14.0 million workers and accounted for 31.9 percent of employment by U.S. MNEs worldwide.
U.S. parents accounted for 21.9 percent of total private industry employment in the United States in 2023, down from 22.5 percent in 2022. Employment by U.S. parents was largest in manufacturing, in “other industries,” led by transportation and warehousing, and in retail trade. Employment abroad by majority-owned foreign affiliates was largest in India, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
Worldwide current-dollar value added of U.S. MNEs decreased 0.6 percent to $6.9 trillion. Value added by U.S. parents, a measure of U.S. parents’ direct contribution to U.S. gross domestic product, decreased 1.0 percent to $5.3 trillion. U.S parents accounted for 21.4 percent of total U.S. private-industry value added, down from 23.1 percent in 2022. Majority-owned foreign affiliate value added increased 0.8 percent to $1.6 trillion. Value added by majority-owned foreign affiliates was largest in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.
Worldwide expenditures for property, plant, and equipment of U.S. MNEs increased 7.5 percent to $1.1 trillion. Expenditures by U.S. parents accounted for $886.1 billion, and expenditures by majority-owned foreign affiliates accounted for $216.2 billion.
Worldwide research and development (R&D) expenditures of U.S. MNEs increased 7.5 percent to $558.3 billion. U.S. parents accounted for expenditures of $476.6 billion, and majority-owned foreign affiliates accounted for expenditures of $81.7 billion.
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 details for U.S. parents and more industry and country details for foreign affiliates are also available on the website.
Updates to the statistics
Statistics for 2022 were revised to incorporate newly available and revised source data. Preliminary statistics for 2022 were released in August 2024 and highlighted in “Activities of U.S. Multinational Enterprises in 2022” in the Survey of Current Business in September 2024.
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