Majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises employed 8.57 million workers in the United States in 2024, a 0.2 percent increase from 8.56 million workers in 2023, according to statistics on U.S. affiliate operations and finances released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
U.S. affiliates accounted for 6.1 percent of total private-industry employment in the United States in 2024, down from 6.2 percent in 2023. By sector, employment was largest in manufacturing and in retail trade. U.S. affiliates with ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany were the largest contributors to employment.
Current-dollar value added of U.S. affiliates, a measure of their direct contribution to U.S. gross domestic product, increased 4.3 percent to $1.52 trillion in 2024. These affiliates accounted for 6.7 percent of total U.S. business-sector value added, down from 6.8 percent in 2023.
Expenditures for property, plant, and equipment by U.S. affiliates increased 3.3 percent to $328.0 billion.
Research and development (R&D) performed by U.S. affiliates increased 5.3 percent to $95.5 billion. These affiliates accounted for 12.4 percent of total U.S. business R&D in 2024.
By state, U.S. affiliate employment was highest in California (885,200), Texas (717,400), and New York (556,700). In all three states, U.S. affiliates in the manufacturing sector employed the most workers.
U.S. Affiliate Employment by State, 2024
Additional statistics on the activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign multinationals including sales, balance sheet and income statement items, compensation of employees, trade, and more are available on BEA’s website. More industry-, country-, and state-level details are also available on BEA’s website.
Updates to the statistics
Statistics for 2023 are revised to incorporate newly available and revised source data. Preliminary statistics for 2023 were released in December 2025.
| Preliminary estimate |
Revised estimate |
|
|---|---|---|
| Number of employees (thousands) | 8,661.8 | 8,556.9 |
| Value added | 1,469.1 | 1,456.3 |
| Expenditures for property, plant, and equipment | 322.7 | 317.6 |
| Research and development expenditures | 87.8 | 90.6 |
| U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis | ||
Related Data Tables
For the 2024 activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises statistics highlighted in this release, as well as estimates for earlier years, see the below data tables in BEA’s Interactive Data Application and comprehensive data tables.
Selected data
Employment
Value added
Expenditures for property, plant, and equipment
R&D expenditures
Modified
The complete set of statistics on the activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign MNEs is available on the BEA website. In the comprehensive data section, some tables with affiliate counts were modified. They are tables II.A 4, II.A 5, II.A 9, II.C 14, and II.G 16.
Note. BEA has updated its disclosure avoidance method to coarsening, which includes rounding, aggregation, and the use of ranges. This allows BEA to publish more data, while still providing confidentiality to BEA’s survey respondents.
Next release: Spring 2027
Activities of U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Multinational Enterprises, 2025
