Two maps showing how many jobs European companies create in the states
State-level data is harder to find for investment statistics than for trade numbers, meaning state import and exports. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis does provide an array of numbers on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the U.S., but only few data tables relate to the federal states. If they do so, there are discrepancies between covering the EU or Europe for some years. For other years, there is no data on FDI from the EU or Europe at all. So, to approximate the importance of FDI from Europe for the states, in my study, I offer data regarding the number of jobs from European companies in each state.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ data on the number of employees of majority-owned European affiliates is available on a state-by-state basis. For the years 2012 to 2015 (corresponding roughly to the time frame under consideration in my study), I used this data to calculate the annual average of jobs from European FDI per state, knowing that this also includes a few non-EU countries.
High levels of European investments in all states
The data provides some insights as to where European FDI creates the most jobs in the U.S. Part of makes studying the federal states so fascinating is their great diversity: They are legally and institutionally all of equal standing but differ starkly in size, demographics, economic structure and global outreach. The FDI data gathered for my study highlights this diversity, as the following map shows. Nevertheless, the numbers also show that across the entire country, investments from European companies are an important factor in creating jobs in the states.
Similar to the import and export data, it is crucial to note the difference between absolute and relative data. California, for instance, boasts the most jobs from European FDI. Due to the overall high number of employment from global FDI in that state, though, smaller states, such as Idaho or Vermont, show higher percentages of European companies.
Here’s the same FDI data, just expressed as a percentage. So, the map shows how many jobs were created by European affiliates in relation to jobs generated by affiliates from around the world:
Got questions or feedback?
If you have comments or questions, please feel free to get in touch via e-mail at (PGP-Key).
European FDI especially prevalent on the East coast
As the maps clearly show, big economies such as California, Texas or Florida (the number 1-, 2- and 4-ranked states by GDP, respectively) also have high counts of jobs from foreign affiliates. Yet, more than size of the economy, it seems that geographical proximity to Europe is also a factor: The maps visualizes how the Northeast is home to a lot of jobs created by European companies.