Findings:
An analysis of the production location of U.S. exports—particularly in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas between 2009 and 2010—reveals that:
- U.S. exports grew rapidly in the first year of the nation’s economic recovery. Specifically, U.S. export sales grew by more than 11 percent in 2010 in real terms, the fastest growth since 1997. In terms of job creation, the number of U.S. total export-supported jobs increased by almost 6 percent in 2010, even as the overall economy was still losing jobs.
- Large metropolitan areas powered the nation’s export growth. Taken together, the largest 100 metro areas produced almost 65 percent of U.S. export sales in 2010, three-quarters of the nation’s service export sales and 63 percent of manufacturing export sales. The largest 100 metropolitan areas produced the majority of export sales in 30 states in 2010. Export sales from Midwestern metro areas generated the fastest growth in direct export-production jobs.
