Although they decreased 0.1 percent in August, U.S. exports of goods and services are up overall this year, climbing 15.8 percent in the first eight months of 2011 from $1.2 trillion in the first eight months of 2010, according to a new report released last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Despite the slight decline in exports in August, the country's exports of petroleum products and services were the highest on record, reaching $10.3 billion and $50.9 billion, respectively.
"Now more than ever, our top priority and focus is jobs, and exports are a key driver of job creation," said Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. "The Commerce Department is connecting U.S. businesses every day to the world's consumers so that they can sell more, produce more and hire more ... The August exports numbers show that we are making steady progress in increasing U.S. exports, and we are expanding services exports in particular. This will keep us on track to meet the president's goal of doubling exports by the end of 2014 in support of millions of American jobs."
U.S. travel exports have been especially strong this year, the U.S. Travel Association pointed out in response to last week's Commerce Department report.
"Through the first eight months of 2011, travel exports totaled $99.5 billion, which was larger than the exports of telecommunications equipment, semiconductors and civilian aircraft combined," said U.S. Travel Association Senior Vice President of Research David Huether. "Through August, travel exports rose 13 percent compared to the same period in 2010. This is an improvement from the 10 percent growth through the first eight months of 2010. Given the fact that the travel industry is a very efficient jobs generator — creating twice as many jobs than the rest of the economy for a given increase in output — the solid growth in travel exports this year has been one of the key factors that has enabled the travel industry to create 104,000 jobs through the first eight months of the year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total jobs created in 2011."
To read the August 2011 "U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services" report, download it from the Commerce Department website.