Next month, President Obama will give a speech laying out his plan to get more Americans back to work. It has been reported that he'll mention "a broad package of tax cuts, construction work and help for the millions of Americans who have been unemployed for months." I hope he includes expanding global markets for U.S. goods and services.

In The New Republic, Emilia Istrate and Bruce Katz point out how many jobs and how much economic activity rely on trade:

For example, more than one in five dollars of the Peoria, Illinois economy comes from exports. Peoria’s contribution to Illinois exports is almost double than its share of population.

But exports do not contribute only to economic growth; exports generate jobs and pay better wages. In 2008, 10.3 to 11.8 million jobs were supported by exports in the United States. Leading export industries, such as machinery manufacturing in Peoria and Rock Island, Illinois, paid better than the national average salary in 2010. Growing exports is a recipe for a job-filled recovery because it takes advantage of new sources of global demand.

All the President has to do to quickly take advantage of the job-creating potential of trade is to submit the pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama to Capitol Hill and urge Congress to approve them ASAP.

[For more on how trade benefits your area, visit TradeSupportsJobs.com.]