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Earlier this month a report from The Brookings Institution was released with some useful data. The data, while slightly obvious, came to the conclusion that the majority of our cities and metro areas are the factories of our nations export output. Some of the notable data points include:
- 100 metro areas generated 84% of U.S. exports in 2010
- Exports increased 11% in 2010, the fastest increase since 1997
- Jobs supported by exports rose 6% in 2010, while the overall economy lost jobs during 2010.
The report also examines ways to help the export effort. They include improving the efficiency of federal export programs by merging some of the promotion programs, working with local export promotional agencies to combine efforts and enhance the effects, and provide better data on the metro export performance so the metro-areas can better measure their performance and progress.
As far as business implications go, the major take away here is to help cities invest and grow their export growth power by combining efforts of both local and federal government programs. The United States is #1 in exports (If you include services) in the world and to keep that, the government needs to tighten up their finances and spend in areas where it will yield the most reward.
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