Global Services Boom Creates Jobs Beyond Borders, Opening New Opportunities for Local Economies

OECD research finds that expanding services trade is creating jobs, increasing worker mobility and generating up to 1.6 additional local jobs for every new tradable-services job. Governments should combine services trade with digital infrastructure, skills development and regional policies to spread these gains while addressing inequality and workforce risks.

The rapid expansion of global services trade is reshaping labour markets, creating opportunities that extend well beyond technology, finance and other internationally connected industries, according to the OECD's 2026 study Shedding Light on Underexplored Ways Services Trade Impacts Workers. Prepared by researchers from the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate, the study draws on labour-market and trade data as well as information from institutions including France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), Brazil's Ministry of Labour and the United States Census Bureau. Based on more than 92 million worker observations across 32 advanced and emerging economies, mostly covering 2008–2023, the research shows that services trade is influencing who gets jobs, where employment grows, how often workers change jobs and how international business activity creates employment in local economies.

Services trade is changing who benefits from globalisation

Digitalisation and improved communications have made services increasingly deliverable across borders. The OECD finds that highly trade-exposed services have traditionally employed relatively more men and urban workers, while women are more concentrated in less-tradable sectors such as health and education. But this pattern is changing. Growth in services exports is associated with a rising share of women and younger workers, suggesting that expanding international markets can bring new groups into internationally connected activities.

The education story is also more inclusive than commonly assumed. Services globalisation does not benefit only university graduates. Export growth is associated in some cases with a larger share of medium-educated workers, while imported services used by domestic industries can support employment among workers with lower levels of formal education.

For governments, this means services strategies should be linked with vocational education, digital skills, lifelong learning and employment programmes. The risk is that older and rural workers could have less access to emerging opportunities. Policies that expand broadband, training and business infrastructure outside major cities could therefore determine how widely the gains are shared.

More job movement, but little evidence of greater insecurity

The OECD finds that workers exposed to expanding services trade tend to remain in individual jobs for shorter periods. However, this does not appear to translate into widespread employment insecurity.

Researchers found no significant general increase in workers moving from employment into unemployment, no systematic rise in movement between broad economic sectors and no evidence that services exports or imports increase temporary employment. Imported service inputs are even associated with lower temporary employment in some estimates.

The evidence therefore points towards greater job-to-job mobility and labour-market dynamism, rather than straightforward trade-driven job destruction. Workers may be moving more frequently in search of better opportunities, although the study cannot establish whether every job change is voluntary.

Geography also matters. Fewer than 1 per cent of workers typically move between regions within their country each year. Yet greater services-trade exposure is associated with a modest increase in regional mobility and can draw previously inactive people into employment.

Importantly, employment responses appear stronger in relatively disadvantaged regions with lower GDP per capita and higher unemployment. This gives governments and development partners a reason to consider services trade as part of regional-development policy, particularly through investment in digital connectivity, transport, skills and secondary cities.

One tradable-services job can create up to 1.6 local jobs

Perhaps the study's most policy-relevant finding comes from Brazil, France and the United States, where researchers examined how employment in tradable services affects jobs in locally supplied activities.

Tradable services include activities such as finance, telecommunications, information technology, consulting and research that can serve customers outside their immediate region. Their expansion generates demand for restaurants, retail, construction, childcare and other local services as workers spend their incomes and businesses purchase local inputs.

The OECD estimates that one additional tradable-services job generates around 0.9 additional non-tradable jobs in Brazil, 0.6 in France and 1.6 in the United States. The figures should not be treated as direct country rankings because the underlying datasets differ, but they demonstrate the potentially large indirect employment effects of services growth.

The scale is significant. Non-tradable services account for more than 105 million jobs in the United States, around 35 million formal jobs in Brazil and 18 million jobs in France. Tradable services employ roughly 32 million, 10 million and 6 million workers, respectively.

For businesses, the findings strengthen the case for investment in technology, professional services, telecommunications, research and other tradable activities. But highly tradable services are also geographically concentrated, creating risks that investment and skilled employment become clustered in a small number of cities.

A development opportunity that requires smarter policy

For governments, the message is to treat services trade as more than an export issue. Trade policy should be connected with skills development, digital infrastructure, labour mobility, regional development and social inclusion. Expanding broadband and professional training in less-developed regions could help spread opportunities beyond established economic centres.

International development partners can support this transition by helping countries improve digital infrastructure, modernise professional qualifications, strengthen vocational education, improve services-trade statistics and enable small and medium-sized enterprises to reach international markets. Support for secondary cities could also help developing economies build new service hubs instead of concentrating investment exclusively in capitals.

Private-sector stakeholders have opportunities to access larger markets, recruit broader talent pools and develop local supplier networks. At the same time, companies face risks from skills shortages, rapid employee turnover and geographic inequality. Investment in training, flexible working arrangements and local suppliers can help businesses manage these pressures while increasing their wider economic impact.

The OECD also urges caution. Some findings are associations rather than proven causal effects, while the detailed job-multiplier analysis covers only three countries. Brazil presents an additional limitation because an estimated 40–50 per cent of workers were informally employed during the 2010s, while the main administrative dataset captures formal employment.

Looking ahead, artificial intelligence, teleworking and digital delivery could make even more services tradable. Governments and development partners will therefore need better evidence on wages, skills, firms and regional impacts. The central policy opportunity is clear: countries that combine competitive services markets with digital connectivity, workforce development and inclusive regional policies will be better positioned to turn expanding services trade into broader employment and development gains.