Illinois was fourth with 236,000 workers. Many of those jobs were in Chicago and its collar counties, said David Paulus, whose job as managing partner of World Business Chicago is to promote the area to international companies. In a telephone interview from his Chicago office, he credited the state's central location in the United States and busy O'Hare Airport for attracting business. At a press conference in Washington, members of the Organization for International Investment highlighted the 146 percent growth in foreign investments in the United States between 1980 and 1995. The figure was 110 percent in Illinois over the 15-year period.
International investment is good for America.
Goldstein and others said the numbers underscore the economic role of international companies in the U.S. economy. In 1995, the most recent year for which figures are available, foreign-owned companies employed a record 4.9 million workers or 5 percent of the overall labor force in the United States. The companies accounted for 22 percent of all U.S. goods and services exported, but U.S.-owned businesses grew even more between 1980 and 1995, primarily in the service industry. Foreign-owned firms largely made their investments in the manufacturing industry, said Bill Testa, a vice president and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, foreign-owned companies employed 12.3 percent of all workers in manufacturing in Illinois.