Japanese Auto Industry in U.S. Continues to Fuel U.S. Job Growth

According to a new report, the Japanese automakers’ long-term investments in the United States continue to positively impact the overall U.S. economy and benefit a wide range of workers, both those in the auto industry and many more in related industries.

Utilizing recently released data Rutgers University professor Thomas Prusa finds that the Japanese auto industry is responsible for 1.36 million U.S. jobs in 2012, an increase of more than 125,000 jobs over 2011 figures.

Prusa’s study highlights Japanese automakers’ continued economic investments in U.S. automobile production and parts manufacturing facilities.

“The continued growth and investment of the Japanese-branded automotive industry makes them among the largest job creators in the United States. Vehicle production at Japanese-branded automotive companies’ U.S. operations grew to nearly 3.3 million units in 2012, a 36 percent year-over-year increase; vehicle exports from these same U.S. facilities grew 29 percent in 2012,” Professor Prusa said. “While some of these increases may be partially due to the recovery from the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, increased demand and investment also contributed. The Japanese appear to be fully committed to U.S. production, as evidenced by the fact that 70 percent of Japanese-branded automobiles sold in the United States are built in North America.”

Key findings of the study include:

• 81,000 workers were employed in Japanese-branded U.S. automotive manufacturing and related operations
• 218,000 Americans are employed in the related U.S. automobile supplier network
• 380,000 additional U.S. jobs were created as a consequence of expenditure-effects related to the direct and intermediate jobs
• 680,000 additional U.S. jobs were generated by the Japanese-branded automobile companies’ dealer network

Prusa noted, “The total annual compensation via the jobs created by Japanese-branded automobile companies in the United States is more than $85 billion, an $8 billion increase. This translates to an average salary of more than $65,000.”

The study was prepared for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, a non-profit industry association comprised of the 14 Japanese manufacturers of cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.  The complete study can be found at:

• http://econweb.rutgers.edu/prusa/Contributions/prusa%20contributions%20-%20update%20with%202012%20data.pdf
• http://www.jama.org/pdf/Prusa_Contribution_Study_update_2013-10-28.pdf

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