The role of United States-owned businesses in the United Kingdom (executive summary)
Published 5 December 2021
© Crown copyright 2021
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All data discussed in this section can be found in the report main body (PDF, 3,161KB) and in an annex (ODS, 44KB).
In 2019, US-owned businesses supported
1.48 million jobs across the UK.
Almost 1 in every 20 UK workers, or 4.7% of all workers, worked for a US-owned business in 2019.
Figure 1: Proportion of total regional employment in US-owned local business units, 2019
Around 60% of all employment in US-owned local business units is outside of London and the South East. This suggests US investment is contributing to the UK’s levelling up agenda by supporting investment across the UK.
Of the nearly 1.5 million UK workers employed in US-owned businesses, 29% were employed in wholesale and retail trade, the largest of any industry. This was followed by 22% employed in scientific, technical and IT activities, 14% employed in the manufacturing industry and 9% in financial services.
US-owned businesses make a disproportionately positive contribution to the UK economy. US-owned local business units accounted for 1% of all local business units in the UK in 2019, but generated 11.4% of total business turnover. The number of US-owned local business units and employees in the UK have grown almost every year since 1997.
US investment supports local economies in every UK region
In 2019, US-owned local units employed workers across all regions of the UK.
London had the highest employment in US-owned local business units (355,000), followed by the South East (240,000) and the North West (133,000).
Employment in US-owned local business units grew in every region between 1997 to 2019. The region with the largest increase in employment in US-owned local units was Northern Ireland, with a 211% increase. This was followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (158%) and the East Midlands (131%).
US-owned businesses make a positive impact in a variety of industries
Employment in US-owned businesses accounted for 9.1% of all employment in the wholesale and retail trade industry in 2019. This was the largest of any industry in the UK, and was followed by manufacturing (8.5%) and financial services (8.1%).
In 2019, US-owned businesses accounted for 17.6% of all UK business turnover in the scientific, technical and IT services industry. In the manufacturing industry, US-owned local units also accounted for 17.6% of total turnover. The largest industry in terms of total absolute turnover of US-owned businesses in 2019 was financial services, with a total turnover of £238.8 billion.
US-owned businesses have a wider positive impact on the UK economy
Between 2010 and 2019, there was an estimated increase in UK gross value added (GVA), a measure of economic impact, of at least £65.2 billion from US-owned businesses.
Foreign-owned businesses, including US-owned businesses, export a greater value of goods and services from the UK than domestically-owned businesses. It is expected that US-owned businesses contribute to wider economic impacts through exports from the UK.