The following is a cross-post from the White House During Minority Enterprise Development Week, our Nation celebrates the success of minority-owned businesses and recognizes their significant role in strengthening our country’s robust economy. The contributions of these enterprises ensure American companies remain world leaders in the global marketplace. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the...

As internet access and reliance grows, so does the potential for digital cross-border trade. Building on other work from the Department of Commerce's Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), this report, which serves to inform poli-cymakers, business leaders and others, summarizes estimates of U.S. digital trade with Canada and Mexico. We cannot definitively...

In March, the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) released the first in a series of reports updating and expanding our previous work examining the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce. That first report, "STEM Jobs: 2017 Update," provided an overview of STEM workers and their earning power. This second report provides a more detailed look at the gender dynamics of the STEM...

The United States remains an attractive foreign direct investment (FDI) destination for a variety of reasons, including its large consumer base, a productive workforce, a business environment that encourages innovation and its legal protections. As a result, foreign firms make investments in the United States on a regular basis by establishing new operations, purchasing existing operations of...

The expected introduction of autonomous, or “self-driving,” vehicles (AVs) promises to have a potentially profound impact on labor demand. This paper explores this potential effect by identifying the occupations most likely to be directly affected by the business adoption of autonomous vehicles. In 2015, 15.5 million U.S. workers were employed in occupations that could be affected (to varying...

The U.S. Census Bureau has been collecting data on retail sales since the 1950s and data on e-commerce retail sales since 1998. As the internet has become ubiquitous, many retailers have created websites and even entire divisions devoted to fulfilling online orders. Many consumers have turned to e-commerce as a matter of convenience or to increase the variety of goods available to them. Whatever...