Brian Kelsey, President
Civic Analytics

Brian Kelsey primarily uses Strategic Advantage to perform efficient market research for his consulting business, as well as to supply his business blog with interesting data highlights and maps. Brian finds that EMSI’s GIS module helps him communicate information effectively to audiences with wide-ranging levels of technical experience, while both the Career Pathways and Educational Analyst modules streamlined his workflow for a recent market research project. Brian turned to CP and EA when a client recently expressed interest in understanding demographic trends and workforce availability in order to locate new business branches in strategic locations. With the key data at his fingertips, Brian was able to quickly provide the client with a data-driven site selection plan.

Rose Baker, Program Manager, University Outreach
Penn State University

With the time-saving features of Strategic Advantage, Rose is able to multi-task without being spread too thin. She helps small communities with questions on their economies, trains workforce professionals on data-driven decision making, and assists continuing education professionals with program expansion decisions. Recently, Rose was able to use SA to assist a small rural community that needed to estimate how many of its jobs were driven by tourism. Using SA’s Economic Impact input/output model, Rose created an economic base report which showed 3,800 jobs driven by visitors. “Because I have Strategic Advantage, I could assist this community,” she said. “Without it, helping them would have meant a costly sacrifice of time and resources, not to mention a laborious and inefficient workflow.”

Carolyn Arnold, Institutional Research and Grants
Chabot-Las Positas Community College District (California)

Using Strategic Advantage is one way that Carolyn maximizes the efficiency and productivity of her research time. As the Coordinator of Institutional Research and Grants in a large community college, her work demands detailed, current, easily-accessible data on local demographic and economic trends. Carolyn finds that SA is a perfect fit for her needs, both (1) to provide a strong data-driven foundation for grant proposals, since she can tailor an SA report to provide relevant facts in a short timeframe; and (2) to perform program alignment and identify new program opportunities. By examining projections for high-wage occupations in her community college district’s service area, Carolyn can identify gaps in program offerings, as well as ensure that the current programs are aligned with labor market realities.

Beth Sullivan, Director of Planning and Marketing
Workforce Connections, Inc. (Wisconsin)

Strategic Advantage’s flexible database simplifies regional planning for Beth Sullivan of Workforce Connections, Inc., which provides jobseeker and employer services to western Wisconsin. Because their service area is part of a 16-county functional labor market area that includes two adjoining states (Minnesota and Iowa), Beth Sullivan relies on Strategic Advantage for streamlined analysis that aids collaboration with regional partners. Manually pooling data for 16 counties in the three states would be laborious and time-consuming at best, but SA’s customizable region definitions allow Beth to see the big picture instantly, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. She applies this regional perspective by creating up-to-date analysis of industry clusters and creating data-driven grant applications.

Tom Tveidt, Director of Research
Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce (North Carolina)

Tom Tveidt values Strategic Advantage “for the ease in which I can perform economic development centered around data.” Before he had SA, Tom didn’t have a practical way of summarizing his area’s workforce competencies (skills, knowledge, and abilities) to businesses considering a move there. He could see the potential benefits of utilizing O*NET competency data, but there was no platform to use it practically for his needs. Now he can use the Career Pathways module in SA for instant numbers on not only the “target occupations” of a particular business, but also all “compatible occupations” which represent a broader potential labor pool. This gives the prospective business a more realistic picture of the local workforce, and using SA for this task has proven to be an invaluable way to provide relevant data in a short timeframe.

Mark Clasby, Executive Director
Haywood County Economic Development Commission (North Carolina)

Capturing the impact of business is one part of Mark Clasby’s success as an economic developer. He says Strategic Advantage is a great resource for performing impact analyses that are time- and cost-effective. Whether a business is thinking of arriving, leaving, expanding, or downsizing, Mark can use SA’s input/output model to find out the full impact of the scenario in terms of regional jobs and earnings. The results help him build a case for supporting existing industries and assisting new industries as they move to the region. With the impact analysis as a foundation, Mark can promote regional growth with decisions founded on the data.

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

Q. EMSI’s data is different from data I get from my state’s labor market information (LMI) agency. Which is right?

A. Actually, this is not a case of one being “right” and one being “wrong,” because the data sets have different sources, purposes, and coverage.

First, let’s clarify that EMSI actually offers two different data sets: “EMSI Complete” and “EMSI Covered.” You’ll probably see significant differences between EMSI Complete and your state’s LMI data, but only minor differences between state data and EMSI Covered. That’s because EMSI Covered and state LMI are based on the same single data source: the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW; formerly ES-202). This federal program, with participation from all the states, collects data on all workers who are covered by unemployment insurance (UI), which is why we call it “EMSI Covered.” You will often hear reporters and economy-watchers talk about these numbers as “payrolls,” because nearly all payroll employees are covered by UI. Interested readers can take a look at the BLS Handbook of Methods for more information.

There are only two differences between EMSI Covered and state LMI data:

1. EMSI “unsuppresses” non-disclosed data. The QCEW program collects and releases data with the promise that published data cannot be tied to any single business establishment. So whenever it determines there is a chance of this (and the chance increases with more geographic and industry detail), it “suppresses” those data points—e.g., number of jobs and total wages for industry X in county A. You will often see these as “(D)” or “(ND)” symbols in state data. Since EMSI’s philosophy is to achieve the most complete and detailed data possible, we use sophisticated techniques and additional data sources to estimate these suppressed values.
2. EMSI distributes jobs coded at the state level to individual counties. A small percentage of QCEW-reported jobs are coded only at the state level rather than in a particular county. For our EMSI Covered data set, we have chosen to redistribute these jobs proportionally by industry to individual counties, rather than leaving them at the state level.

(Updated: Moreover, keep in mind that EMSI Covered aligns with private-sector only employment reported in QCEW; EMSI puts all government employment, regardless of industry, into separate categories based on total figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.)

So, if you use EMSI Covered data, you’ll get results that line up very closely with your state’s LMI data for private-sector employment. (You can toggle between EMSI Covered and Complete in EMSI’s Strategic Advantage suite by choosing Home > Preferences > Data Options.)

We also produce the “EMSI Complete” data set because a significant portion of the workforce is not covered by traditional QCEW labor market data. Here are just a few examples of non-covered workers:

• Self-employed workers (sole proprietors, partnerships, tax-exempt cooperatives)
• Railroad employees
• Military employees
• Farm workers
• Insurance and real estate agents receiving commissions
• Private schools and religious organizations (partially reported)
• Nonprofit organizations with fewer than four employees
• And more….

Because EMSI is interested in creating the most “complete” possible picture of local economies, we estimate jobs and earnings for all these workers using additional data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau (QCEW is produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Because the number of non-covered workers in a given area can be large, job figures in EMSI Complete will often be much larger than those in state LMI data. This is natural considering the expanded coverage of EMSI Complete. Data users should also remember that labor market data normally counts jobs, not headcount of workers (some Census data counts workers). A single worker holding two half-time jobs would cause two jobs to appear in the data. Although our clients sometimes request it, there is currently no reliable method for translating these raw job figures into full-time equivalent (FTE) job figures.

Choosing the right data source for your research project depends on your purposes and goals, but knowing the basic differences between various sources is essential. EMSI’s philosophy is to produce integrated data that is as complete and detailed as possible, locally focused, and internally self-consistent. Public agencies more focused on producing separate data sets collected from individual programs, while preserving the confidentiality of underlying records.

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)

A Socioeconomic Impact (SEIM) report by EMSI has shown that West Cheshire College brings £117m in benefits to its local economy. In addition, learners at the college will on average see a gain of £931 in annual income for each qualification earned.

From the Chester Chronicle:

Economists assume a 4% rate of return on government investments, but when EMSI looked at West Cheshire College, which has campuses in Chester and Ellesmere Port, the rate of return was an impressive 17%.

The outcomes of the report break down the impact West Cheshire College has on learners, businesses, taxpayers and society in general.

. . . .

Principal, Sara Mogel, said: “Further Education Colleges make a tremendous contribution to society and its economy. At West Cheshire College we recognised this, but even we have been amazed at the size of our own contribution. We won’t be resting on our laurels, but will continue to work hard to make West Cheshire a stronger economy and society.”

The college has posted a press release as well as the full results of the study.

A recent study by EMSI has shown Baltimore City Community College to have a total net impact of more than $540 million on its service area. The study was completed in January and released by the college on April 15th.

Highlights from the study showed:

• BCCC pumps $45.5 million in labor and non-labor income into the economy from operations and capital spending;
• BCCC students contribute $24.9 million in taxable income to the Maryland economy annually;
• For every dollar students spend on courses at BCCC, they will earn $4.40 in future earnings;
• BCCC saves Maryland $2.1 million each year through improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment and crime; and,
• Associate degree graduates from Baltimore City Community College who work in the region can earn $50,400 per year, 40 percent more than an individual with a high school diploma or GED.

Read the article here (Baltimore Business Journal).

EMSI is the international leader in impact studies for community and technical colleges, with over 800 studies completed for more than 500 colleges in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom since 2001. Unlike many simple impact models which have been rightly criticized for inflating benefits and ignoring costs, EMSI uses a sophisticated proprietary model that requires detailed data and calculates the college’s true net impact of a college, along with a student and taxpayer investment analysis.

An EMSI gap analysis report is being used to inform a new Master Plan for Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, Arkansas. NWACC has reviewed input from multiple sources, including the EMSI report, and the consensus appears to be that the college needs to create a permanent presence in a neighboring county as well as establish a university center.

The task force got its first official look at all the compiled data, as well as information from the 2006 gap analysis, which was conducted by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. A gap analysis looks at a community and determines what needs are being met and what needs remain unfulfilled. This is accomplished using public data and demographics, NWACC consultant Patti Mocivnik explained.

Susan Holmes, co-facilitator for the task force, said the results make the priorities quite clear. Certain types of programs, such as programs for medical professions, are clearly needed, but so is a type of program called a university center. University centers are programs in which other colleges and universities can partner with NWACC to provide their four-year degrees using NWACC facilities.

Read the full article here.

EMSI’s gap analysis drew on an integrated database of over 70 public sources to organize key demographic, economic, and labor market information for the college. The report was prepared as part of a statewide initiative that included similar reports for all Arkansas community and technical colleges.

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.