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The Utah Jobs Agenda is a 10-point, private sector plan to create 150,000 jobs over five years. One of the key components of the Agenda is to grow is to double the value of international merchandise exports during that time period.

Utah has been a leader in export growth—increasing exports by 142 percent in the past five years, reaching our all-time high of over $18 billion last year.

Utah exports create high paying Utah jobs.

The Brookings Institute recently found exports have played a major role in driving the U.S. economy forward in the past two years, contributing to more than 46 percent of the nation’s growth in 2010. In fact, total exports that year almost reached pre-recession levels.

Export Nation highlights that metropolitan areas contributed to 84 percent of the nation’s exports while the top 100 metros accounted for 65 percent of U.S. goods and services sold abroad. All large metro areas also experienced positive export growth rates between 2009 and 2010. Exporting is now being looked at as mostly a metropolitan enterprise.

Brookings says exports supported 600,000 new export-related jobs and 10.7 million jobs altogether in 2010. Of those, large metropolitan exports supported over 67 percent of export-production jobs even beyond the metro boundaries. New York was the biggest metro exporter to support the largest amount of jobs (329,000) with Los Angeles following close behind.

A reassuring find was that 11 out of the largest 100 metro areas achieved export growth sufficient enough to meet the nation’s goal of doubling exports. It may seem a small number, but it’s double the number of metros that had this kind of growth rate between 2003 and 2008.

Utah was among states where metropolitan area exports account for over 60 percent of the export total for the state. Others include California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania along with several others mostly along the eastern seaboard.

Utah has led the U.S. in merchandise export growth for the past three years with 39.5 percent growth, jumping from $13.8 billion in 2010 to $18.93 billion in 2011.

U.S. exports to developing countries are increasing and metropolitan areas that produce what those emerging markets need are in a good position to take advantage of the growth opportunities. World Bank works with sponsors nationwide to help get those products to development projects in those nations—thus helping the U.S. export numbers. As a Private Sector Liaison Officer, the Chamber helps Utah businesses procure contracts for projects funded by the World Bank.

Selling products to customers outside the U.S. can bring a big boost to businesses of all sizes.