Majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises employed 8.66 million workers in the United States in 2023, according to new statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). This represents a 1.9 percent increase from the 8.5 million workers reported in 2022.
These affiliates accounted for 6.2 percent of total private-industry employment in the United States in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year’s share of 6.3 percent.
The current-dollar value added by majority-owned U.S. affiliates, which measures their direct contribution to U.S. gross domestic product, rose by 6.3 percent to reach $1.47 trillion in 2023.
Expenditures for property, plant, and equipment among these affiliates also increased by 6.3 percent, totaling $322.7 billion last year.
Research and development performed by majority-owned U.S. affiliates saw a smaller rise of 1.1 percent, reaching $87.8 billion.
Additional statistics covering sales, balance sheet and income statement items, compensation of employees, trade figures, and more are available on BEA's website through its data tables and interactive applications.
Statistics for the year 2022 have been revised as new and updated source data became available since preliminary estimates were released in November 2024 and highlighted in “Activities of U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in 2022” published in December that year.
The revised number of employees for 2022 is now estimated at approximately 8.5 million, up from the preliminary estimate of about 8.35 million workers; value added was adjusted upward to $1.38 trillion; expenditures for property, plant, and equipment increased slightly to $303.5 billion; research and development expenditures were revised to $86.8 billion.
Beginning with this release, BEA has discontinued including certain tables within the body of its news releases regarding activities of U.S affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises as well as selected annual data tables on affiliates with less than or equal to fifty percent foreign ownership and supplemental industry statistics; these have been archived but remain accessible online.