Extra-EU exports supported 30 million jobs in 2020

Globalisation has resulted in many jobs being dependent on international trade. In 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic started, employment of 29.9 million persons in the EU was supported by exports to non-member countries, a slight increase from 29.6 million in 2019, according to this figures released by Eurostat.

In relative terms, export-supported employment represented 14% of total employment (206 million), which is equivalent to just over one in seven persons employed in the EU. While employment increased, the value of the associated trade slightly decreased, from €2 606 billion in 2019 to €2 438 in 2020.

EU exports supported €1 962 billions in value added in 2020, equivalent to 16% of the €12 032 billion in total value added created in the EU.

Germany was the EU Member State with the highest absolute level of employment supported by EU exports. In 2020, the jobs of 7.4 million persons in Germany were supported by exports from the EU, including exports from Germany itself.

The level of export-supported employment in Germany exceeded the combined level of export-supported employment in France (3.5 million) and Italy (3.4 million), which had the second and third highest levels. Together, these three Member States accounted for almost half (48%) of the EU employment supported by exports to non-EU countries.

As a share of total employment, the employment in each of the EU Member States supported by EU exports ranged from just under 1 in 10 in Croatia (9%) and Greece (10%) to nearly one in four in Ireland (23%) and Luxembourg (24%).