Sean Moore
Research Analyst
Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), Center for Regional Competitiveness
Missouri

Sean Moore is using EMSI’s labor market analysis to generate an economic development strategy for the state of Minnesota. First, Moore and his colleagues at RUPRI’s Center for Regional Competitiveness completed a preliminary analysis of Minnesota counties, in part by using EMSI’s web-based tool, Strategic Advantage, to look at industry and occupation figures. The next step was to create a development plan based on cluster analyses. With data from every county in Minnesota at his disposal, Moore is able to quickly and easily run multi-county breakdowns. SA has been “a labor-saving device in terms of producing quick snapshots of regional economies,” he said.

Ingrid Skadberg
Director of Institutional Research
Quinsigamond Community College
Worcester, Massachusetts

Quinsigamond Community College used EMSI’s analysis to explore the possibility of a second campus location by getting critical labor market information on the area surrounding the new site. With booming enrollment and space constraints in the existing campus, it makes sense for QCC to branch out, and a natural landing spot is southern Worcester County. Current QCC students who live there commute up to 45 minutes to class. However, administrators still needed to show there were ample employment opportunities near the new site. Using ZIP code-level data and analysis from EMSI, Ingrid Skadberg, Director of Institutional Research, was able to show local job growth in manufacturing, home health care services, and publishing. This information will inform program development when QCC goes forward with expansion.

Kerri Nawrocki
Director of Institutional Research
Colorado Community College System

When the State Board for the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) had questions about the rapid growth of its for-profit competition, Kerri Nawrocki was able to use EMSI’s tool, Strategic Advantage, to perform a detailed analysis comparing CCCS to its private, for-profit counterparts. With SA’s user-friendly, integrated data, Nawrocki was able to differentiate between CCCS and the for-profit institutions to find the top programs, market penetration, tuition costs, retention rates, and graduation rates of each institution type. This analysis served as the basis for Nawrocki’s report, which is entitled “Competition from Private For-Profit Post-Secondary Institutions: A Brief Snapshot of the Colorado Two-Year Market.” Nawrocki says she “hopes the intelligence gathered in this report serves as a guide for CCCS to better differentiate itself in the face of growing competition.”

Meg Shope Koppel
Director of Research
Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board
Pennsylvania

Meg Shope Koppel is putting the finishing touches on a labor market breakdown of the career and technical education programs in the School District of Philadelphia, and the state-mandated report has been facilitated by EMSI’s analysis tool. She was able to identify high-growth tech-related occupations in Philadelphia and analyze existing and relevant postsecondary program areas tied to those occupations. After delving into the data, Shope Koppel and her colleagues could better explain the need for further education beyond the required 1,058 credit hours in the career and tech ed programs. She used convincing labor market information to conclude that high school graduates need to earn at least a postsecondary certificate to reach a family-sustaining wage.

Samantha Spitzer
Manager of Research and Evaluation
Workforce Development Council Snohomish County
Everett, Washington

To get a better sense of emerging industry clusters in Snohomish County, local leaders came together in 2003 to develop “Blueprint 2015.” At the center of the ongoing project between government, education, and workforce/economic development has been EMSI’s analysis. Specifically, Samantha Spitzer of Workforce Development Council Snohomish County informs Blueprint partners on the health and projected growth of local industries. “With EMSI we’re able to back up everything we see in the field with solid data,” Spitzer says. She runs breakdowns of the emerging clusters on a quarterly basis to keep the partners as up-to-date as possible. Thanks to the collaborative effort, Snohomish County has brought in $24 million in grants to help sustain the clusters. The county’s two community colleges have been part of the success: The Edmonds Community College Small Business Development Center has created nearly 300 new jobs since the partnership began, and Everett Community College has launched several new programs to prepare students for work in high-growth clusters.

Janet Stephens
Economic Planner, Workforce Solutions
North Central Texas Council of Governments

When the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) publishes a “Target Occupations” list to use as a tool for planning and to assist jobseekers, Janet Stephens looks to EMSI for data. By focusing on shift share and location quotient figures in EMSI’s analysis tool, Stephens can find which occupations are regionally competitive in the NCTCOG’s workforce development area 14-county region, and how concentrated those occupations are compared to the state and nation. The list, required by the state to be updated every other year, is used as a starting point to train jobseekers and give program recommendations to educational institutions. Currently, a large emphasis is being placed on “green-collar jobs” in the energy sector as well as the logistics cluster in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Transportation is also a growing field, Stephens says, particularly jobs related to trucking.

Robert Shore
Economic Research Program Manager
Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

Completing shift share and location quotient breakdowns for every industry in a state, even when that state is Hawaii, can be an overwhelming task. But with EMSI’s analysis, Robert Shore and his staff at the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism have found it to be a manageable endeavor. Shore’s Regional Analysis and Performance branch hopes to better identify Hawaii’s growing, emerging, transitioning, and declining industries by looking at regional competitiveness and relative concentration. The state-commissioned staff can do all this inside EMSI’s tool, which allows users to get a broad overview (two-digit NAICS codes) or a detailed look (six-digit codes). Another goal in the report is to focus on emerging industries not related to tourism, a large part of the Hawaiian economy that is starting to suffer a downturn after years of robust growth. The early results point to small but emerging sectors tied to research and development and custom computer programming.

Hart Hodges
Director, Center of Economic and Business Research
Western Washington University
Bellingham, Washington

To give policymakers, economic/workforce development professionals, and educators a better sense of how northwestern Washington industries are performing, the Center of Economic and Business Research (CEBR) releases sector profiles. The four-county reports have been facilitated by EMSI’s labor market analysis. Hart Hodges, director of the CEBR, says the profiles “paint a picture” of sectors ranging from manufacturing to health care to agriculture. In the past, the CEBR relied solely on data from Washington State’s Employment Security Department. He now has access to key figures for industries and occupations, such as location quotients (a measure of concentration) in easy to use, report-ready graphical format. Hodges also hopes to do similar reports focusing on workforce demographic profiles for even more Washington counties. Once again, EMSI’s analysis will be at the heart of the project, he says.

Pat Fera
Manager
Will County (Ill.) Workforce Investment Board

EMSI’s analysis tool, Strategic Advantage, helps Pat Fera maximize her time and resources. As a workforce investment board (WIB) manager, Fera receives data requests from area employers who are looking for workforce and wage information. Fera says, “SA’s value is both internal and external. Internally, we use the data to get a heads up of changes in the economy and to plan accordingly. Externally, we value the flexibility of the data for business services and business recruitment.” Recently, Fera was able to use EMSI to support business recruitment.  She used wage information from SA to show the prospective employer that contrary to their concerns, Will County’s wage scale is competitive with the surrounding regions. From this very specific analysis to an economic overview of the entire region, Strategic Advantage is a key component to this workforce investment board’s success.

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.