In North Carolina, creative occupations pay much better than the state average, grow faster in boom times, and decline slower during recessions. Those are a few of the conclusions from an analysis on the state’s creative economy by North Carolina State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) and the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Mar. 25, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightCentral Community College has three campuses dispersed throughout south central Nebraska — a service area that encompasses 25 counties, 14,500 square miles, and 300,000 Nebraska residents. With such a wide geographic focus and students who predominantly stay close after graduation, CCC leaders knew the college had a big economic impact on the region. But how big?
Mar. 24, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightChula Vista, Calif., is a fast-growing city near the Mexican border that has just one public higher education option: Southwestern College, a two-year school.
Mar. 19, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightRecent economic unrest has caused many people to rethink career paths and education choices. But even before the Great Recession began, substantial shifts were starting to occur in national college completions.
Mar. 12, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightGlen Oaks Community College in Centreville, Mich., contributed $86.7 million in added income to the south central Michigan economy in FY 2009, according to new EMSI impact study. GOCC released details of the study, which highlighted the higher earnings for students and increased output of businesses as a result of the college.
Mar. 12, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightA familiar story is unfolding in nearly every state. Most legislatures are currently in session, and lawmakers are agonizing over cuts to state education budgets. By now politicians are well versed in anecdotal evidence on the importance of investing in education — from early development classes through college. But what about definitive numbers on the [...]
Jan. 28, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightMichael Mandel’s recent blog post on higher education attainment rates and earnings is worth a look. Mandel showed that more college grads are earning advanced degrees but fewer are getting doctoral degrees. And perhaps most eye-opening is that earnings for Ph.D. holders have fallen 10% since 1999. Mandel’s thoughts sparked us to take a look [...]
Jan. 19, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightResults of an EMSI socioeconomic impact study show Pennsylvania Highlands Community College is a major economic driver in its region, contributing $49.7 million in FY2008-09 in added income and helping associate degree-earning students make $414,000 more over their working lifetime than someone with a high school diploma. PHCC’s impacts were highlighted in a recent article [...]
Jan. 15, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightOne of the most successful Industry Partnership programs in the United States is found in Lancaster County, Pa., where each year 3,000 to 4,000 workers are retrained to address skill gaps and help local companies remain competitive and productive. The Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board‘s program has been so effective that it has been the [...]
Jan. 11, 2010 | Posted by Joshua WrightGary Mallon and his colleagues at Greater Spokane Incorporated focus their economic development and chamber of commerce efforts not just in Spokane and Eastern Washington but also throughout a extended region that includes North Idaho. When it comes to searching through the diverse area for available, highly-trained workers—a “core asset” to the region, according to [...]
Dec. 10, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightIn this EMSI video, Josh Wright and Josh Stevenson walk through the new updates to two of our web-based tools — Career Pathways, which is dedicated to skills and career exploration, and Educational Analyst, which helps planners assess training programs. These changes include a smoother, more user-friendly interface for analyzing re-employment scenarios, looking at occupation [...]
Dec. 8, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightFor many years employment in US manufacturing has been in sharp decline. Domestic manufacturers have scaled back, outsourced, or just plain closed down.
Dec. 3, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightIn southeastern Wisconsin, the methods and strategies that have been used in workforce development for years are changing. By emphasizing skills-based training rather than educational attainment, a cross-section of groups is seeking to put businesses, educators, and jobseekers on the same page. Click here for the case study in PDF format RWA Looks at Demand-Side [...]
Nov. 20, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightEditor’s note: This is an op-ed piece by Rob Sentz, EMSI’s marketing director and author of a series of five green jobs papers. Click here for a PDF version of this piece. Illustration by Mark Beauchamp Introduction Over the past year, EMSI has been fielding questions from local planners (workforce boards, community colleges, and economic [...]
Oct. 28, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightMore and more, and certainly in light of the current recession, there is a need to apply up-to-date information on local, state, regional, and even national economies to training, curriculum, and skills development. So, in this brief paper we want to show how labor market information (or information on industries, occupations, and demographics) can be [...]
Oct. 7, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightWhen a major Wisconsin manufacturer considered relocating to Oklahoma, local and state economic development professionals put on a full-court press to convince the company to stay. The results were overwhelmingly positive, offering a vibrant example of a successful business retention effort. PDF of the case study: Mercury Marine retention effort Nearly 1,900 Fond du Lac [...]
Oct. 3, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightA new report from the National Center of O*NET Development chronicles how O*NET data has been used successfully by government agencies, educational institutions, and other organizations throughout the country and internationally. Several of the organizations highlighted are EMSI clients or partners, including the Newton (IA) Transformation Council, the WIB of Southwest Missouri, and Tennessee Valley [...]
Oct. 1, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightClient Snapshot: Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, Atlanta, GA Cultivating a robust regional workforce for Georgia’s fastest-growing industries is the crux of the Work Ready Regions program developed by the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. The initiative identifies the needs of businesses in regions of all sizes throughout Georgia and seeks to match those employers [...]
Sep. 18, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightCommunity colleges, workforce boards, and economic developers in north central Ohio have been working nonstop to create programs, provide assistance, and produce information that would be helpful to unemployed workers searching for new jobs. As part of their efforts they have taken part in job fairs to share information about new regional programs and data [...]
Sep. 10, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightHere is a handy economic development metric. It’s called “pull factor,” and it indicates how well (or poorly) a retail business community captures local trade and pulls in customers from outside its region. A pull factor above 1.00 means a region is bringing more shoppers into the area while a pull factor below 1.00 indicates [...]
Aug. 4, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightThe Kauffman Foundation’s recent study, “The Anatomy of Entrepreneurs,” offers some interesting insights into the backgrounds and make-up of entrepreneurs. One of the major conclusions is that most entrepreneurs are middle-class and well-educated. “The commonly held belief that entrepreneurs are young college students working out of their dorms is simply wrong,” says author [Vivek] Wadhwa, [...]
Aug. 3, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightAs the current recession continues, business incubators and accelerators have become increasingly important in helping communities and regions stabilize and even strengthen their economies. A textbook example comes from Spartanburg Community College in South Carolina, where a new accelerator has already had a major effect on its area. For a PDF of the case study [...]
Jul. 22, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightTompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY, contributes approximately $155 million to its local economy every year, according to a new EMSI socioeconomic impact study. TC3, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, has experienced a huge spike in enrollment — a trend expected to continue through 2009-2010. “Having the president of [...]
Jul. 21, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightA report released this week as a joint effort by four organizations shows that workers lack the basic and applied skills that employers need. A survey of 217 employers by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management analyzed employer-based [...]
Jul. 17, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightIn an attempt to generate new jobs and increase public revenues for their airport, leaders in Dayton, Ohio, and surrounding townships are looking to develop 600 acres around the city-owned airport for economic development purposes. An initial step in enhancing the area was conducting a data-driven analysis to determine which industries to target based on [...]
Jul. 9, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightTo raise awareness of job opportunities for Chicago-area displaced workers in the midst of the deep recession, a consortium of nine regional workforce boards has released a study that emphasizes the continuing demand for middle-skill workers. “While policymakers continue to focus on the need for high-skill workers,” the report states, “the need for middle-skill workers [...]
Jul. 8, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightLabor market and education data analysis from EMSI was instrumental in Central Community College’s latest grant success—a $2.17 million Community-Based Job Training Grant from the Department of Labor. The grant is targeted toward advanced manufacturing and specifically enhancing equipment and curriculum at the Midwest Center for Plastics & Design. This is the third time in [...]
Jul. 1, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightHeavy losses in manufacturing have placed immense pressure on career centers throughout north central Ohio. For Troy Shutler, a career counselor at North Central State College, a key resource for providing guidance to dislocated workers is EMSI’s Job Finder. The new self-service tool combines regional labor market data and current job postings with occupational compatibility [...]
Jun. 23, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightWorking in major population centers such as Los Angeles to more isolated areas like Montana and North Dakota, Praxis Strategy Group helps a wide spectrum of clients craft and implement community initiatives and business ventures. Part of PSG’s analysis includes looking at detailed data from EMSI that is not constrained by typical geographical boundaries. PSG [...]
Jun. 19, 2009 | Posted by Joshua WrightMetropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska, has released the details of an EMSI study that showed the impacts of the college to its four-county service area. Some of the study’s highlights include: Students who complete an associate’s degree from MCC earn roughly $12,300 more per year, or about $435,000 over the course of a working [...]
Jun. 14, 2009 | 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.
