Majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises employed 8.35 million workers in the United States in 2022, marking a 6.8 percent increase from the previous year's 7.82 million workers, according to statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
These affiliates represented 6.2 percent of total private-industry employment in the United States for that year, slightly up from 6.1 percent in 2021. Employment was most significant in manufacturing and retail trade sectors. Affiliates with ultimate owners based in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada were the primary contributors to this employment growth.
The current-dollar value added by these majority-owned U.S. affiliates, indicating their direct contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product, rose by 16.1 percent to $1.35 trillion in 2022, accounting for 6.7 percent of total U.S. business-sector value added compared to 6.4 percent in the prior year.
Expenditures on property, plant, and equipment by these affiliates increased by 3.8 percent to $299.1 billion, making up 15.7 percent of total U.S. private business capital expenditures. Research and development activities performed by these affiliates also saw a rise of 3.5 percent to $80.3 billion, representing 11.6 percent of total U.S business R&D.
By state, California had the highest number of employees at majority-owned U.S affiliate companies with 852,300 workers, followed by Texas with 695,600 and New York with 546,500 employees; manufacturing was the leading sector for employment across these states.
Further detailed statistics on sales, balance sheets and income statements items among other financial aspects are available on BEA's website with more insights expected in December's Survey of Current Business.
Statistics for the year 2021 have been revised following new data availability as noted in table A provided by BEA.