EMSI has developed an affordable new data-driven report that condenses and organizes essential regional economic data and forecasts for college program planning into a clean, reader-friendly format. The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) was the first client in line for the new reports, receiving no less than 58 separate reports (one for each NC college) last week.

Following the successful rollout in North Carolina, any individual college or state system may now purchase a report customized with local data.

View a Sample Report (PDF) - Click Here

With an ultra-fast turnaround time (within days of receiving necessary information) and a very affordable price, the “Regional Scan and Program Demand Report” provides executive summaries, eye-catching charts and maps, and detailed tables concerning the population, industries, and occupations in a college’s service region. It concludes with a table showing 20 fast-growing regional occupations compared to the college’s annual enrollment or its recent annual graduates in programs related to those occupations. This practical information helps colleges adjust their program capacity to regional workforce demand.

For more information or to purchase a report for your college, call EMSI at 866.999.3674.

Know Your Region: An online collection of professional development curricula and other resources to help development professionals “understand and apply core concepts of regionalism and industry cluster development.” A joint project of two universities and C2ER (formerly ACCRA).

Read the full article here.

The study, commissioned by DCC, determined that the Dutchess County economy is $807.4 million stronger annually, as a direct result of the college’s past and current impact on the county.

“This figure represents 7.5 percent of Dutchess County’s total income each year”, said college president Dr. D. David Conklin. “Since we first opened our doors in 1957, the college has been serving our local community by first and foremost providing access to a quality education for everyone in the county.”

EMSI has developed a document to assist colleges applying for Community-Based Job Training Grants. The PDF takes users step-by-step through the Strategic Advantage tool to gather data that meets a number of the requirements in the solicitation. Note: the solicitation for applications has been extended. Applications must now be submitted by October 31 of this year.

Download the PDF: How to Use Strategic Advantage for CBJTGs

The Tax Foundation has released its “2008 State Business Tax Climate Index.” While tax environment is a useful economic indicator and an important aspect of business site selection, it is important to remember that other factors like infrastructure, workforce, presence of post-secondary educational institutions, and overall quality of life can easily outweigh it.

At the recent Wyoming Economic Development Association (WEDA) conference, Albuquerque economic development director Mike Lauter gave the attendees a grim picture of the future labor market–grim for businesses, that is. According to Lauter, next year the total demand for labor in the U.S. will exceed the total supply, and the gap will continue to widen in the foreseeable future. (Lauter’s specific data and methodology are unfortunately not provided in the article.)

In Nashville, the economic and fiscal impact of the local NHL franchise is at the heart of a controversy over local government incentive deals. The debate seems relevant for any city evaluating the economic benefits of pro sports.

Florida leads the nation in the total number of Associate’s degrees granted, producing 44,994 graduates in 2005-06 to take four of the top five spots. Health care related programs seem to be partially responsible for the large output.

The Washington Monthly has released their list of America’s Best Community Colleges, which is based on colleges’ use of proven, effective teaching methods and their success at graduating students (many of whom face economic and social barriers to success).

The Times (UK) reports that research councils in the United Kingdom will now take into account the economic impact of proposed research in order to make funding decisions. While the councils say they have a broad definition of “economic impact,” many researchers are worried that potentially useful and ground-breaking research will go unfunded because it cannot demonstrate an “immediate or obvious” impact. Read the full story.

On this side of the Atlantic, the Association of University Research Parks will reveal the economic impact of North American research parks at its annual conference on October 24-26 in St. Louis. Read the press release.

This is exciting news for the workforce investment system. Read about it here.

The NFWS is a $50 million funding collaborative that aims to strengthen and expand workforce partnerships over five years. The Council on Foundations, Jobs for the Future, and The United Way of America are national strategic partners that will assist in raising awareness of the NFWS, implementation of the initiative, and development of new sites.

The NFWS has three primary goals:

• Create new opportunities for low-wage workers to obtain better paying jobs and careers through education and training;
• Meet employers’ critical needs for skilled workers by improving their ability to attract, retain, and advance employees; and
• Expand resources and improve the efficiency of the workforce investment system, including engaging employers in the effective design of workforce partnership services and shaping state and regional alignment of workforce policy and programs.

Mike Nale, a consultant from Fortune 500 staffing giant Manpower Inc., has written an informative article on regional market analysis for recruiters. He highlights the importance of knowing regional industry and occupation trends, including recent/projected growth and shift share.

Economy Overview. A good market analysis will have an economy overview, which is very helpful in understanding where your current market is and where it is going. My analysis focuses on five-year trends, which can tell me if a specific industry is growing or not. This can be important in identifying industries in your business development that you can capitalize on. It is also helpful in establishing parallels in which one industry may suffer but, because of the paralleled verticals, you can focus your candidates in another direction.

Read the full article at ere.net.

A new data update from EMSI has instantly enabled our Economic Impact (EI) input-output model to use more detailed industry information. The change has disaggregated the Construction sector into 31 specific types of construction industries, and it applies only to the Economic Impact component of EMSI’s Strategic Advantage suite of tools. Detailed Construction sector data was already available in the Economic Forecaster component.

The update will allow users to run detailed economic impact (input-output) simulations, with inputs and outputs split out among specific construction industries, such as “New single-family general contractors” or “Oil and gas pipeline construction.” Before the update, only the broad “Construction” sector was available in the model. The change brings the total number of industries available in the model to 1,100.

The detailed industries have also increased the usefulness of the Industry Gap Analysis and Economic Base reports within the Economic Impact module.

Washington State is offering regions the chance to apply for five industry-cluster-based “Innovation Partnership Zone” designations, each of which comes with  $1 million in grants to create a research park.

Minnesota is jump-starting rural economic development with an initiative called SEED (Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development), which is focused on small business creation.

San Francisco has spent 30 years developing a biotech / life sciences cluster, and after these decades of investment and struggle, is poised to reap the benefits.

Thanks to EDPro for rounding up these and other great stories.