Key Points: Global Poverty and U.S. Jobs History has shown that as people transition from barely surviving into becoming consumers, it opens new markets for U.S. companies and creates American jobs. 1 out of 5 U.S. jobs is export-based and 45 percent of our exports now go to developing nations. From Germany to South Korea, nearly all of the United States’ top trading partners were once recipients of U.S. foreign aid. Foreign Policy Magazine describes the world’s poor as the largest untapped market on earth.