Improving New Foreign Direct Investment 

State Employment Statistics Using QCEW Data

Ryan Smith

H-3: Data integration techniques for improving economic statistics on multinational enterprises

FCSM 2023

The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the U.S. Bureau 

of Economic Analysis or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
BEA’s foreign direct investment in the United 

States (FDIUS) statistics

2

FDIUS

Direct 

transactions and 

positions statistics

Data on the amount of 

direct investment

Included in the ITAs and IIP

Activities of U.S. 

affiliates of foreign 

MNEs

Data on what is happening 

with that investment

Items include employment, 

income statements, R&D 

expenditures, etc.

New Foreign 

Direct Investment 

in the United 

States
New FDI in the United States

3

• Acquisitions of existing U.S. businesses

• Establishments of new U.S. businesses

• Expansions of existing U.S. affiliates

Survey of new foreign direct investment in the 

United States (New FDIUS) measures:

• Country of ultimate investor

• Industry of the U.S. affiliate

• Location of investment by state

Expenditures and employment of investments

Employment by state is a featured statistic from this dataset
Background

BEA collected New FDIUS from 1980 to 2008

o Discontinued for budgetary reasons

Survey re-introduced in 2014

Due to strong demand, BEA expanded data set to include state 

data

o One state is reported on the form to minimize respondent burden

Most New FDIUS activity are acquisitions of U.S. businesses

o Can operate in multiple states

o Can overstate employment in reported state

QCEW microdata available through data-sharing agreement with 

BLS

o Employment of each U.S. business establishment 4
Motivations

5

Better estimate state-level employment for U.S. entities 

newly acquired by foreign investors

• Increase accuracy and utility for data users

Integrate administrative data from the QCEW microdata 

from BLS

• No increase of burden on BE-13 survey respondents

QCEW microdata available to BEA through data-sharing 

agreement

• Employment of each U.S. business establishment

• BEA only has access to microdata for ‘participating’ states
New methodology overview

6

Apportion non-sharing states based on industry of the acquired entity

Search QCEW microdata for employment at establishments of acquired U.S. 

companies

Use in-house developed Shiny-based app to search establishments

• Microdata covers three-quarters of establishments

• Includes 36 states, Puerto Rico, USVI, and D.C. 

Review all acquisitions with 3,000 or more employees reported
Non-sharing states apportionment methodology

7

Conduct web search for any available location information

Apply proportion above for non-sharing states to the 

remaining employment to estimate values for those states

Calculate proportion of total non-sharing employment by industry 

and state

Find employment in sharing states by searching the QCEW microdata; 

calculate the remaining employment

Use QCEW employment data by industry and state
Non-sharing states - example

• XYZ company with 6,500 employees reported on BE-13A form

• 4,400 employees identified in QCEW microdata

• 2,100 remaining that must be apportioned

• Industry code is 4522 (department stores)

8

State % of non-sharing 

employment for 4522 

by state 

Estimated Employment

New York 28.0% 588

Massachusetts 13.4% 281

Hawaii 4.4% 92

Mississippi 2.1% 44

Vermont 0.7% 15
Results

9

Reviewed all eligible 

companies for survey 

years 2018-2021

On average, 24 percent of 

employment remained in 

state selected on survey 

form 

Fewer suppressed cells in 

tables

Higher employment in 

states which previously 

had zero or near-zero 

reported employment


Benefits of the 

new methodology • Better estimate state-level 

employment for U.S. entities 

newly acquired by foreign 

investors

• Increase accuracy and utility for 

data users

• Fewer suppressed cells in table • Higher employment in states 

which previously had zero or 

near-zero reported employment

12
Additional information

• New FDIUS statistics: https://www.bea.gov/data/intl-tradeinvestment/new-foreign-direct-investment-united-states

• BEA’s International Accounts Concepts and Methods: 

https://www.bea.gov/system/files/2023-06/iea-conceptsmethods-2023.pdf (chapter 33)

• BE-13 Survey: www.bea.gov/be13

• Questions?: Internationalaccounts@bea.gov

13