New Study: Trade Supported Over Three Quarters of a Million Arizona Jobs

A new study from Business Roundtable finds that international trade supported 783,500 jobs in Arizona in 2018, having represented 1 out of every 5 jobs in the state before the pandemic.

Since 1992, before the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the share of jobs tied to trade in Arizona has increased by 85 percent. Additionally, the Grand Canyon State’s trade-related employment grew three times faster than total state employment from 1992 to 2018.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant economic disruption to U.S. workers and businesses, the data show that opening markets to American goods and services around the world through rules-based trade is critical to U.S. economic recovery and helping American workers and families get back on their feet.

The study – prepared by Trade Partnership Worldwide – analyzes the latest-available employment and trade data from 2018 and examines the net impacts of both exports and imports of goods and services on American jobs.  Highlights include:

• North America: Trade with Canada and Mexico supported 249,300 Arizona jobs, underscoring the importance of fully implementing the newly enacted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to strengthen North American competitiveness.

• China: Trade with China supported 147,300 Arizona jobs in 2018, highlighting the importance of fully implementing the Phase One trade agreement, expeditiously negotiating additional structural reforms in China and removing additional tariffs and barriers to trade between the two largest economies in the world.

• Exports: Arizona exported $22.1 billion in goods and $13.2 billion in services in 2018, including semiconductors and components, aerospace products and parts, metal ores and travel services.

• Small Businesses: Of Arizona’s 7,771 exporters, 87 percent are small- and medium-sized companies with less than 500 workers.

A summary of Arizona data can be found here.

The full study can be found here.

Business Roundtable CEO members lead companies with more than 15 million employees and $7.5 trillion in revenues. The combined market capitalization of Business Roundtable member companies is the equivalent of over 27 percent of total U.S. stock market capitalization, and Business Roundtable members invest nearly $147 billion in research and development – equal to over 40 percent of total U.S. private R&D spending. Our companies pay $296 billion in dividends to shareholders and generate $488 billion in revenues for small and medium-sized businesses. Business Roundtable companies also make more than $8 billion in charitable contributions.