This week the Washington Post published an article reinforcing the critical role that community colleges play as an ideal avenue for job retraining. With unemployment at a 14-year high, enrollment at two-year colleges has increased 8 percent this fall, according to one group’s estimate cited in the piece. While the United States has one of [...]
Nov. 20, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightFor more than a century, the economy of Newton, Iowa, has depended on the presence of Maytag. But when the manufacturer was swallowed up by Whirlpool, which promptly closed the Newton plant, regional leaders had to develop a new revitalization and economic development strategy from scratch. The result has been the creation of 1,200 new [...]
Nov. 12, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightThe Labor Department announced today that the nation’s unemployment rate hit a 14-year high in October at 6.5 percent, accounting for 240,000 lost jobs. More details can be found here and here. This news is no doubt grim, but EMSI offers a range of services to assist workforce, economic and education professionals locate new areas [...]
Nov. 7, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightACT recently released future workforce profiles for 31 states. The reports are aimed at providing states with information on gaps or surpluses in high-growth occupations that require at least a two-year degree based on students’ interest level. States qualified for the profiles by having 25 percent or more of their 2008 graduates ACT-tested and at [...]
Oct. 31, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightThe global economic downturn is starting to affect higher education in the U.S., specifically when it comes to endowments, Reuters news service reports. Meanwhile tuition is continuing to grow at a rapid clip. – For the nation’s public universities, which educate three out of four students, state subsidies covered a little over half of their [...]
Oct. 30, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightWith an appealing climate, great local employment opportunities, and a robust agricultural sector, it’s easy to see why the Tri-Cities has been the fastest-growing region in Washington state since 2000. Located in the southeastern part of the state, Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco (a.k.a the Tri-Cities) have mushroomed nearly 20 percent over the last eight years [...]
Oct. 24, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightA wealth of data from EMSI played a key role in an in-depth study released recently by the Hawaii Science and Technology Council, in partnership with the Center for Regional Competitiveness, on Hawaii’s innovation and technology sector. The report highlights the private tech sector’s contribution to the state’s economy (about $3 billion in 2007) and [...]
Oct. 20, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightThe latest round of Community-Based Job Training Grants was announced recently, so EMSI has updated its step-by-step guide to help colleges with their applications. The document shows how Strategic Advantage gives users much of the labor market information that’s required in the solicitation. Download the PDF: CBJTG guide Update: EMSI has produced a video tutorial to [...]
Oct. 16, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightIt’s the news that no community wants to hear: a major employer is closing or downsizing their local site, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. If this happened in your area, would you be equipped to create an informed strategy for not only getting those people re-employed but also making your area’s workforce more competitive [...]
Oct. 13, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEMSI is pleased to announce the release of our official Fall 2008 dataset on Monday, October 13th. Our two-week “beta” preview of the data has been very well-received by our users, and we have gotten some good feedback. This official release is very similar to the initial beta release, incorporating only a few minor updates. [...]
Oct. 9, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightWhen the Belgian high-tech materials company Umicore decided to expand its germanium wafer production to the U.S., its search led it to three cities. Two were not surprises (Phoenix and Albuquerque), but one was off the beaten path in the tiny town of Quapaw, Oklahoma (pop. 966), near the Ottawa County seat of Miami (pop. [...]
Sep. 24, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightGary Box Business Retention Coordinator WIB of SW Missouri Gary Box has successfully used Strategic Advantage to provide convincing data on workforce availability to businesses looking to relocate to his region. Recently, he had the opportunity to assist in a project that resulted in the acquisition of a Best Buy/Geek Squad call center. He used [...]
Sep. 4, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightFor the second year in a row, Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. has been named in the Inc. 5,000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, which is compiled using 3-year percentage revenue growth. EMSI’s current ranking of 1,938 improved on last year’s 2,107th spot. EMSI’s CEO Andrew Crapuchettes credited the company’s growth to continual innovation and [...]
Aug. 20, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEMSI is pleased to announce that this autumn’s Strategic Advantage update will include the addition of gross regional product (GRP) estimates to the Economic Impact module. GRP, which is also called “regional GDP” and defined as the market value of all goods and services produced within a given area over a specific period of time, [...]
Aug. 4, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEducation Eileen Storck Director of Enrollment Management, Indian River State College Florida Eileen Storck, Director of Enrollment Management, is helping Indian River State College lead the way in Florida’s transition to a new state college system which will play a vitally important role in the state’s workforce preparation and economic development. Indian River State College, [...]
Aug. 4, 2008 | Posted by Rob SentzIn this updated and expanded version of our previous site selection whitepaper, we talk about the need for labor market analysis for today’s businesses, challenges in using various public and proprietary data sources, and EMSI’s solution to facilitate instant access to detailed data. Labor Market Analysis for Site Selection (Expanded) – PDF Introduction Businesses and [...]
Jul. 16, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightTen years ago, when Dr. Robert “Rab” Thornton became Dean of Outreach Services at Housatonic Community College (HCC), the college had slow enrollment growth, very little interaction with the local business community, and low visibility in the state legislature. His duty was to reverse this trend and effectively “make an invisible college visible.” Thornton quickly [...]
Jun. 30, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEMSI is pleased to announce a partnership with EmployOn to provide job postings data to Strategic Advantage users. EmployOn continually monitors thousands of online job boards to create a detailed, up-to-date database of available jobs in any region, searchable by job title, skills, location, company, and more. EMSI clients who opt for the additional service [...]
Jun. 30, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEMSI economists have completed a new study titled “Identification of Knowledge and Innovation Clusters: A GIS Application of Concentration, Co-Existence, and Correlation.” The paper, which was presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference, identifies regions with a high level of high-tech industry clustering, human capital, and innovation. These regional “knowledge clusters” were identified using [...]
May. 27, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightCanada’s colleges, institutes, and polytechnics contribute CA $123.2 billion to the country’s economy every year, according to a study recently completed by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI). The study, which was commissioned by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, also showed that students who attend these institutions receive a 15% return on their investment in [...]
May. 22, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEMSI has recently made available a new standard report for community and technical college clients. The “Program Justification Report” offers focused supply/demand information to help colleges decide if there is sufficient workforce demand to create a new career-oriented program or expand an existing one. Starting with a client-selected list of up to 15 occupations and [...]
May. 21, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightApproaches to worker recruitment in the 21st century are changing, but with the right information, an effective strategy, and expert execution, the opportunities for success are abundant. This is even true in the energy sector, which is expected to experience a wave of retirements and pressing worker shortages in coming years. By using detailed national [...]
May. 14, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightTimely data and analysis from EMSI were critical for a recent gap analysis report performed for Kingsborough Community College in New York. The final report was created by EMSI’s partner Workforce Strategy Center, a New York based nonprofit, in the summer of 2007 and was recently released on their web site. The report focused on [...]
May. 1, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightEconomic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI) is pleased to announce a new partnership with global publishing company John Wiley & Sons to support Wiley Pathways, a new line of texts from the Wiley Higher Education division. The partnership will allow both companies to better serve community, technical, and career colleges and their students with high-quality, flexible [...]
Apr. 7, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightFor previously posted customer snapshots, click here. People who are new to EMSI’s Strategic Advantage web-based analysis suite can sometimes get lost in its bewildering array of data sets, features, and terminology–and lose sight of its time-saving, productivity-boosting capabilities. That’s why we’ve collected real-world examples of how our clients use Strategic Advantage to become more [...]
Mar. 31, 2008 | Posted by Rob SentzEMSI’s data, modeling, and consulting services played a key role in a report released today by Bruce Corrie, professor of economics and director of the Strategic Business Design Institute at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. The report, titled “Ethnic Capital and Minnesota’s Future: Mexican Americans in Minnesota,” examines the consumer spending power, entrepreneurial capital, [...]
Mar. 5, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightThis case study describes how EMSI (then CCbenefits) helped inform the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative with regional labor market reports. The Arkansas CPI is a groundbreaking program that helps high-risk, low-income adults gain entry into careers with opportunity for upward mobility. Graduates are filling in-demand jobs in regional growth industries while gaining independence from public [...]
Feb. 25, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightWith the advent of EMSI’s affordable, easy-to-use economic modeling tools, many more people are able to conduct economic impact analyses without an extensive background in economics. This document describes some of the basic pitfalls that more inexperienced researchers should avoid when conducting an economic impact study. The three primary pitfalls are: Expressing impacts in terms [...]
Feb. 22, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightIn this whitepaper, EMSI explains the importance of labor market analysis for businesses, site selectors, and economic development professionals. The paper covers types of key information needed and the challenges of local labor market research using public sources, and some basic features of EMSI’s Strategic Advantage web-based system that make it the top labor market [...]
Feb. 6, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightAfter last year’s placement on the Inc. 5000 list, Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. has been recognized as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies. EMSI’s achievement was recently publicized in Forbes magazine on the “Awards Report” page produced by Dallas-based Chorley Publishing. “We’d like to thank all of our customers for their loyalty, feedback, and support, [...]
Jan. 14, 2008 | Posted by Joshua WrightThe EMSI Blog provides data, links, articles, and other information related to labor market trends, regional economics and workforce and economic development.
Joshua Wright is a member of the EMSI marketing team and manages the EMSI blog. If you have any questions, comments, or article ideas, please email him.
