In 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

Ten 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 realized that one of the problems behind this was that the college primarily focused on enrollment figures when talking about its community value, and not on what stakeholders were truly interested in—economic revitalization, bottom lines, and return on investment. They were not communicating because they were speaking completely different languages. This discovery spurred Thornton to redirect HCC’s outreach efforts by looking for new ways to communicate the college’s real value to the community and state.

Read the full case study (PDF): Housatonic Community College: An urban renewal success story

EMSI 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 will be able to access a customized EmployOn job search portal directly from Strategic Advantage. The new capability will enhance Strategic Advantage by allowing users to go from a high-level view of a regional labor market to a detailed view of actual jobs available.

To learn more and order access to the EmployOn job search module with Strategic Advantage, contact EMSI at (866) 999-3674.

UPDATE (7/8/2008): EMSI and EmployOn have added the capability to search job postings by industry  (NAICS system) and standard occupation (O*NET-SOC system). This will dramatically increase the integration of the two companies’ data sets and allow for more advanced analysis.

EMSI 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 several data elements:

• High-tech industry and industry clusters
• High-knowledge occupation clusters
• College degree attainment
• Patent generation
• Relative density of higher education institutions

After condensing all this information in to a single “innovation index,” the authors plotted a map of the hottest innovation zones in the U.S.

Download the draft paper (PDF): Knowledge and Innovation Clusters

Canada’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 education, while taxpayer support of the institutions offers a return of nearly 16%.

 ”This report clearly demonstrates that Canada’s colleges, institutes, and polytechnics play a vital role in keeping Canada prosperous and competitive, as well as benefiting students and their communities,” said James Knight, President of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. “They more than repay the investment taxpayers and their governments have made.”

Other key findings highlighted by the ACCC’s media release include:

• The average annual earnings of a student with a one to two-year certificate are $36,582, or 35 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma or GED, and 12 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma. The average earnings of someone with a two to three-year diploma are $41,937, or 54 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma or GED, and 29 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma or GED.
• Colleges, institutes, and polytechnics contribute nearly $123.2 billion a year to income in Canada’s economy, roughly eight per cent of a typical year’s economic growth.
• Canada’s current workforce is enhanced by approximately 512.6 million hours of past and present college, institute, and polytechnic training.
• Taxpayers see a real-money return of 15.9 per cent on their annual investments in the colleges, institutes, and polytechnics and recover all investments in 8.7 years.
• Canada also benefits from improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment, and crime, saving the public some $215.1 million per year.

ACCC has also made the full report and associated materials available online.

EMSI 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 any custom region of one or more counties, the report summarizes the regional, state, and national labor market outlooks for those occupations, then totals how many students in the area recently completed a award or degree in related postsecondary programs (at the client college and at all regional colleges). A significant shortage of completions compared to estimated annual job openings is an important indicator that the college should expand its program offerings in those fields.

To see a sample report and place an order, visit our Regional Reports page, or call us at 1-866-999-3674.

Approaches 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 and local data, one talent management consulting firm increased its client’s pool of qualified applicants by 400% in two weeks.

Read the full case study to find out how Brian Kelsey of Civic Analytics delivered a data-driven solution to a national talent management firm.

Strategic Advantage locates talent for the energy industry (PDF)

Timely 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 tourism and hospitality, non-nursing health care, retail, and maritime industry sectors. In particular, the report helped inform the college’s newly-launched Project Welcome, an initiative designed to train students for careers in New York’s fast-growing tourism and hospitality industries. In a recent local news article, representatives from the college and Workforce Strategy Center lauded the project’s success.

Indeed, a year after the launch of the program, Project Welcome, Kingsborough Community College (KCC) is reporting success above and beyond what was initially predicted, opening the door to potential success for those just beginning their work careers as well as those making mid-life career changes.

Stuart Schulman, the director of KCC’s Center for Economic and Workforce Development, said that Project Welcome – which had been established thanks to a $1.7 million grant from the United States Department of Labor – had exceeded the federal requirements as far as the number of people trained is concerned. In addition, Schulman said that the program — which centers on a 280-hour, 10 week course — had also exceeded its goals in terms of placement.

The framework used by Workforce Strategy Center, known as “Career Pathways,” is designed to help workers get training for jobs in high-demand fields with clear opportunities for future career advancement. It has been successfully paired with EMSI’s wealth of regional labor market data in several workforce development projects around the country.

Economic 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 curricula aligned to high-demand jobs.

“This is a great example of how EMSI’s integrated data can help both public- and private-sector organizations make informed, strategic decisions,” says EMSI CEO Andrew Crapuchettes. “We’re very pleased to be working with the Wiley Pathways team, and we believe our partnership will bring great value to their customers and ours.”

Under the agreement, EMSI will produce co-branded regional reports focusing on the labor market demand for occupations linked to Wiley Pathways curricula, which cover four major fields: Business, Emergency Management, Health Care Management, and Information Technology. The reports will inform colleges about opportunities for developing, expanding, or supporting related programs. Students will benefit by getting a detailed picture of the local, state, and national job market for the knowledge and skills they can acquire in those programs.

For 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 efficient and more informed while saving their organizations money and leveraging additional resources. [Note: The following names and case studies are used by permission for informational purposes. They do not necessarily constitute an explicit or implicit endorsement of EMSI by the people or organizations listed.]

Workforce Investment & Development

David Blumenthal, Workforce Associate for Research and Development
Center of Workforce Innovations, Inc., Indiana
The need for accessible and accurate data is one constant in the ever-changing landscape of workforce development. To meet the Center of Workforce Innovations’ needs for occupation, industry, and demographic data, David Blumenthal uses Strategic Advantage. Its broad scope helps him perform multi-county research like the “State of the Workforce” report for Northwest Indiana, while the ability to drill down to ZIP code data helps him with detailed reports for individual companies. David says he likes to use Strategic Advantage because “its user-friendly layout provides me the capability to shift between occupations and industries, with the ability to sort, filter, or trim any report I choose.” For David and many more workforce developers like him, Strategic Advantage has become an integral part in the strategic planning process.

Higher Education

Tom Prendergast, Director of Institutional Research
North Central State College, Ohio
Tom Prendergast uses Strategic Advantage (SA) for successful grant writing. Recently, he and North Central State College used SA to support the application and subsequent gain of a Regional Innovation Grant (RIG) for his region. Armed with data on the aging workforce, dislocated workers, and the increasing demand for health care services, North Central State College and the other regional partners were able to prove their case for funding with conclusive data-driven findings on their region. Tom also used SA data to support his applications for two other recent grant successes, which brought 1 million dollars to the region for bioscience research and workforce training. Currently, Tom is focusing on the implementation phase of the RIG, and he is working closely with an EMSI consulting team to formulate a plan for transitioning laid-off workers into two focus industry sectors.

Nancy Benziger Brown, Dean of Workforce Development
Walter State Community College Center for Workforce Development, Morristown TN
Nancy Brown used EMSI data to help win a $1.95 Million Community-Based Job Training Grant. In order to do this, she used Strategic Advantage to provide data on: local emerging industries, demographics, and growth rates for several different occupations. This data helped establish need, as the per capita income was below poverty level compared to the state and nation. By identifying need and focusing on Advanced Manufacturing, especially Automotive Parts Manufacturing, Nancy and her team received the CBJTG to develop training, purchase state-of-the-art equipment and begin a career center on campus.

Nancy Ness, Tech Prep Coordinator, Selland College of Applied Technology
Boise State University, Idaho
Nancy is currently using Strategic Advantage to support a data-driven framework for program planning and program justification. With a new Southwest Idaho community college set to open in 2009, Nancy and the college program managers have been using occupation data from SA to guide program offerings. As the infrastructure for this community college is created, occupation data from SA will be used to evaluate the demand for the occupations that these programs train for. In the past, Nancy has used SA to help Southwest Idaho high schools meet Perkins IV accountability requirements and for grant writing for Boise State University Selland College of Applied Technology.

Terry Newman, Director, Contract and Community Education
Gavilian College, California
Terry Newman understands the power of detailed regional data. Gavilian College is a recent recipient of a Rural Opportunities Studies Grant, and the focus of the grant is on a rural county where detailed and up-to-date data is hard to come by. Terry is using Strategic Advantage ZIP code data to better understand this underserved region. In looking at workforce projections for this county, she has unearthed several growing occupations that went unnoticed previous to the detailed analysis. With this knowledge, Gavilian College can proactively address the competencies workers will need in order to remain in the region. This analysis will become the basis for new programs in the future. Terry’s example of data-driven regional analysis proves the importance for utilizing detailed data to address the workforce and education needs of rural communities.