Melanie Moore
Director of Research
Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce
Florida

Melanie Moore is currently using EMSI’s analysis to perform a data-focused report of how Jacksonville compares to its 17 biggest competitors in recruiting targeted industries. The study will allow Moore to show how Jacksonville stacks up to a wide range of cities in terms of employment numbers and projected growth in particular industries. For example, Jacksonville competes with New York and Boston in the financial services sector, while its chief competitors in transportation are Savannah, Georgia and Mobile, Alabama. Transportation is a key industry for Jacksonville because two major interstates intersect there. Moore also appreciates EMSI’s tool when she compiles information for prospective businesses, particularly when she needs to glean data for all ZIP codes within a 30- or 40-mile radius around the city. “It’s so nice to be able slice and dice the data however you need it, and do it quickly and easily,” she says.

Bill Berry
Research Coordinator
Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corporation

When Bill Berry needs to crunch labor market numbers, he turns to EMSI’s web-based analysis tool. As a research coordinator who collaborates with workforce development professionals across Pennsylvania, Berry has to dig in and analyze industry and occupation data on a regular basis. He enjoys the ease of selecting different regions in EMSI’s tool with a few mouse clicks. The ability to combine counties from different states is also a plus. He and his coworkers at the Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corporation recently helped a workforce investment board in Pennsylvania that needed data for a report on three counties in Ohio (Mahoning, Columbiana, and Trumbull) and two in Pennsylvania (Lawrence and Mercer). The WIB wanted to show how far its potential labor pool extended. “That was a pretty big deal for them,” Berry says. “I think they were impressed with the quality and extent of the data available.”

Houston Community College in Texas has unveiled the details of an EMSI impact study that concludes the six-college system has a $4.1 billion impact every year on the local and regional economy.

The study drew upon data taken from HCC, as well as the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources. The $4.1 billion annual economic impact, for example, is based upon estimates of the impact college operations have upon the regional economy, along with money spent by students and the increased earnings of students who have graduated from HCC.

(Chancellor Mary) Spangler’s main message since taking office has been that community colleges matter.

“Community colleges are critical to the economic success of our country,” she said. “Institutions like ours offer hope and access.”

 Read the full story here.

With 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 and boast a current population of 234,000. However, as is always the case with rapid growth, there is one issue: The area’s booming population base has few available avenues to earn four-year degrees without traveling out of the region, thus limiting the ability for many residents to ascend on the career ladder.

As a result, Columbia Basin College offered a solution.

Read the full case study (PDF): Columbia Basin Case Study

A 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 the importance of expanding the state’s workforce to meet the future needs in fields such as computer programming and engineering, as well as more regionalized industries like ocean sciences and agricultural biotech.

The study, entitled “Innovation and Technology in Hawaii: An Economic and Workforce Profile,” was a collaborative effort between a handful of organizations, including the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the CREC (affiliated with C2ER), the University of Hawaii, and the University of Illinois. C2ER Research Manager Mark White said the goal of the report was to shed light on the Islands’ tech sector, of which “there was very little baseline information on.”

An excerpt from the report:

Hawaii has a small, but important technology sector. Relative to the rest of the U.S., Hawaii does not have a technology-intensive economy. While 3.6 percent of all workers in Hawaii are employed in the state’s technology sectors, 4.6 percent of U.S. workers are employed in those same industries nationally. However, technology-related activities in the state are growing at a rapid pace. Hawaii’s technology sector (including public- and private-sector employees) grew at an annual rate of 2.9 percent between 2002 and 2007. This outpaced the U.S. growth rate of 2.3 percent for these same industries.

EMSI provided much of the data for the project when it came to (1) up-to-date industry/occupation totals and projections; (2) impact figures for Hawaii’s science and technology sector; and (3) the number of degrees the state’s education institutions handed out in tech-related programs. EMSI’s education figures were particularly useful, White said, in comparison to wading through the IPEDS database or calling individual colleges and universities to ask for the data. “It’s a real timesaver for us to have all the information handy,” he said.

When 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. 14,485). Umicore’s Opticals division has an existing plant in Quapaw, so it knew the cost of business would be low, but it needed proof that the surrounding region could provide the necessary workforce for the new plant.

Read the full case study (PDF): Oklahoma / Umicore Case Study

Update: EMSI made some preliminary economic impact estimates for the project, which are quoted in this article.

Gary 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 Strategic Advantage to show the site selectors that Southwest Missouri has the necessary number of available workers in the target occupations within a 30-mile radius. The Best Buy/Geek Squad call center has already hired 200 employees and is now open and in full operation.

Erika Volker
Partnerships for Innovation
FutureForce Nebraska
Erika Volker recently used Strategic Advantage to provide data-driven reports to a consortium of educational providers throughout Nebraska. This group, Partnerships for Innovation, aims to improve programs, increase student achievement, and meet Perkins IV requirements throughout the state. Erika created three reports for secondary schools in 20 service areas. These reports included a look at the educational attainment, economy overview (industry size and growth), and career clusters (ranked by size) of each region.  These reports connect the economic demand/labor market side of program creation with student interests, which student surveys provide. Both are necessary to provide program development with a well-rounded, data-driven and student-driven environment. These reports have already begun to generate dialogue among secondary and post-secondary institutions, and Erika hopes that the education consortium will use these reports to form common goals and data-driven program offerings.

In 2006, a major confectionary plant in South Central Pennsylvania announced that it would be closing, and another four in the area indicated that they would be making significant cutbacks. The total job loss would potentially reach around 600 jobs. To respond, the Lancaster, Berks, and South Central Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) partnered to build a strategy around the looming dislocation in this industry sector.

Read the full case study here (PDF):  Threats of job loss lead to innovation in south central PA

A couple of weeks ago EMSI hosted a webinar for Strategic Advantage users to be (re)introduced to the Career Pathways module and the O*NET data that powers it.

The webinar kicked off with a description of the basic components of O*NET data and how the Career Pathways module integrates O*NET data with EMSI labor market data. Tom Tveidt, Director of Research for Asheville Chamber of Commerce, shared a personal example of how EMSI’s Career Pathways tool has reinvented the way he shows workforce availability to prospective businesses. Dave Williams, EMSI Customer Solutions Consultant, demonstrated how to apply Career Pathways in two scenarios:

• Business Recruitment: How to show workforce availability to prospective employers based on O*NET data and the region’s potential labor pool.
• Rapid Response: How to quickly find viable job options for displaced workers.

Follow this link to see the recorded webinar (requires the Flash plugin for your browser).

Note: Due to some screen resolution issues we encountered during the webinar, the screen will appear somewhat “stretched” in the second part of the recording.

Education

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, formerly Indian River Community College, is using Strategic Advantage to align baccalaureate programs to the workforce needs of both the region and state. As Eileen reflects on the recent changes, she states, “As a state college, we have a responsibility to provide degree programs that will lead our students into high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand occupations. One big difference is that now we research a broader area as we address potential gaps in the workforce.” As Eileen provides detailed data to the baccalaureate program sub-committee, Indian River State College can make strategic, data-driven decisions on four-year degree programs—from the very beginning.

Jeanne Fadelli
Research Analyst, Santa Rosa Junior College
California
Jeanne Fadelli, Research Analyst at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC), uses Strategic Advantage to prepare Institutional Effectiveness reports and the Community Needs Assessment (CNA). EMSI’s bi-annual data updates provide the most current data available, which is helpful for Institutional Effectiveness reports on time-sensitive issues like the “District Population Served by Gender, Age and Ethnicity” and “Population Participation Rates by ZIP Code” for the college’s annual Fact Book. The CNA includes detailed regional industry, occupation, and demographic detail for strategic planning purposes.  With SA’s integrated data and flexible regions, Jeanne could focus on the projected regional occupation growth and decline, as well as follow high school enrollment patterns and demographic trends.  This CNA will serve as a guide for outreach to targeted demographic groups, and it will also inform program planning.

Brett Riley
Director of Grants, Columbia Basin College
Washington
When Brett Riley hears of a grant opportunity, his first stop is Strategic Advantage. Before he does anything else, he uses SA to identify whether or not Columbia Basin College has a need for a particular grant opportunity. Brett says, “Using SA makes my job significantly easier, since I can find everything I need in one place, from start to finish.”  Recently, Brett helped Columbia Basin College win a grant for an Apprenticeship Growth Funding program. To accomplish this, he based the projection years on the grant funding period and looked at the forecasted demand for the specific occupations in the region. Then, he used EMSI GIS to visually display that his region has a 2% greater demand for these jobs than the rest of the state. This convincing data and clear presentation gave Columbia Basin College the competitive advantage they needed to win the grant.

Workforce Development

Rebecca Bloomquist
Special Projects Coordinator - High Country Workforce Development Board,
High Country Council of Governments
North Carolina
Rebecca Bloomquist uses Strategic Advantage as a resource for discovering regional trends and making recommendations based on these trends through allocation of workforce resources and strategic planning. She is currently using SA to perform a wage study for a small town in High Country’s service area. Stakeholders in this town fear that they are losing employees to surrounding counties due to lack of competitive wages. Rebecca will use SA’s Occupation reports to compare this small town to the state as well as surrounding counties and verify whether or not this town’s wages are lower than those surrounding counties. Once the report is completed, she can make wage recommendations to make this town more competitive with the surrounding regions.

Eddie Foreman
CEO, Central Oklahoma Workforce Investment Board
Oklahoma
Eddie Foreman, CEO of Central Oklahoma WIB, uses Strategic Advantage to proactively plan for future workforce needs. For example, he recently used SA to confirm that without any intervention, central Oklahoma could face a workforce crisis in several years. He found that by 2014, central Oklahoma is projected to grow by 20,000 jobs, but the working age population is only expected to grow by 3,000.  With such an immense difference, Foreman knows that creative strategies are necessary to counteract the workforce decline.   Instead of merely targeting populations outside of their region, it has led the WIB to sponsor several training programs inside of correctional facilities within the region, and the results have been positive so far, with former convicts transitioning into the declining workforce. As the workforce crisis looms, Foreman proves that proactive and creative solutions are a must for successful economies.

Economic Development

Jim Held
Senior Economist, Empire State Development
New York
Jim Held, Senior Economist with Empire State Development in Albany, New York, doesn’t know what he would do without the flexibility of Strategic Advantage. He says that one challenge of being an economic developer in New York is trying to keep up with the changing regional distinctions between Upstate and Downstate (i.e., metropolitan New York City).  With 62 counties in the state, there are many possible definitions for the two mega-regions.  Creating a region in SA is so simple that Held is not fazed by creating and combining different regions as policy needs change, and this helps him stay on the cutting edge of economic development in his state.