Quantifying the employment impacts of gross exports: a global accounting perspective

Abstract

This article presents a method for quantifying the (domestic) employment consequences directly attributed to gross exports by taking into account the complex and global nature of production chains. Using a multi-country input–output (IO) structure of world production, the method derives measurements for the number of jobs and amount of labour income supported by a country’s export-related production. By quantifying how much domestic employment is determined by a country’s export activity, it offers a complementary (labour-focused) view on the more common (value-added focused) analyses for evaluating the economic impact of trade. This approach highlights the importance of exports in creating jobs and labour income, especially in the European Union and China. In contrast, gross exports in the United States show a (comparatively) weak influence in supporting US employment.