Chapter 11 – Trade

Information on trade statistics comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Economic Census taken every 5 years.

The number of establishments in the CNMI increased from 800 in 1987 to more than 1,300 in 2012.  The biggest increase was between 1987 and 1992 because of the rise of the garment factories and other busi-nesses associated with those factories.  Sales increased from about $400 million in 1987 to about $2 billion in 1997 before decreasing to about $1.3 billion in 2007 and continuing at that level in 2012.  The annual payroll increased from about $57 million in 1987 to $381 million in 2002 before decreasing to about $200 million in 2012.  And the number of paid employees was less than 10,000 in 1987, but doubled in 5 years, and went up about the same amount again in 1997.  The number of paid employees peaked in 2002 at about 33,000 before decreasing to about 14,000 in 2012.

In the 2012 Economic census, service industries had by far the largest number of employees at about 9,600, followed by retail trade (2,500), construction (820), wholesale trade (720), and finally manufactur-ing (590).  This last was somewhat astounding.  The number in manufacturing in 1987 was 2,300, but in-creased to 6,300 in 1992, and then 13,700 in 1997.  The number peaked at 17,000 in 2002, and then de-creased rapidly to 7,100 in 2007 and the aforementioned 600 in 2012.  So, manufacturing increased rapid-ly with the garment factories, and then decreased to even lower levels after their departure.

In 2012, the largest number of establishments were in retail trade (284), followed by real estate (177), and accommodations and food services (142).  Retail trade highest the value of sales at $314 million, followed by wholesale trade ($247 million), and Accommodations ($180 million).  Series on distributions for select-ed industries go back to 2002.  More detailed industries are also presented.  

The 1,068 corporations were 80 percent of all the businesses and legal organizations in the 2012 census.  Of the 1,339 establishments, 203 (15 percent) had sales and receipts of $1 million or more.  Of these estab-lishments, 14 had no paid employees, 674 (about half) had 1 to 4 employees, 302 had 5 to 9 employees, 206 had 10 to 19 employees, and 143 (11 percent) had 20 employees or more.  About 550 of the estab-lishments were reported as male-owned, 260 s female-owned, 140 as 50/50 male-female, 62 with gender unknown, and 327 with gender unreported.  

The census reported 221 CNMI-born owned establishments and 135 other U.S. citizen-owned businesses, so about 2 out of every 5 establishments.  The census all showed 114 Chinese citizen businesses as well as 104 Japanese, 61 Filipino, 122 Korean, 42 dual or other citizen-owned establishments, as well as 339 citi-zenship either not reported or unknown.  The census also reported on the classes of consumers crossed by type of establishment, as well as capital expenditures and depreciation charges.

The CNMI Division of Revenue and Taxation in the Department of Finance reports Business Licenses is-sued, but the data here are not complete, and will be updated when newer data are available.  Banking ac-tivities are also lacking for recent years.  Inbound and outbound cargo information is collected by the Commonwealth Ports Authority, but those data are also not current.