An article last week in Community College Times illustrates the important role that two-year colleges play in helping give regional economies a much-needed boost. By furnishing skilled workers in a timely fashion, community and technical colleges are “incredibly important economic engines,” according to Karen Elzey of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive [...]

EMSI recently completed a study of the “creative” occupation cluster for the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a non-profit organization that developed the “Creative Vitality Index” (CVI). The CVI was generated off the premise that strong regional creative economies are simulative for individual, societal, and economic progress. The index gives “municipalities and states a well-researched [...]

With Alabama lawmakers bracing for difficult budget issues in the 2009 legislative session, one state-funded organization that provides critical workforce training and economic development incentives decided to take a proactive approach to show its value with a dollar-and-cents assessment.
To read the case study in PDF format: ROI report helps Alabama training institute demonstrate its value [...]

A record number of home foreclosures and soaring unemployment have left the Ocala, Florida, region trying to cope with the economic slowdown. To help people get back to work, the workforce board and its partners are preparing the area’s labor force for a proposed $17 billion nuclear plant.
To read the case study in PDF format: [...]

Labor market projections from EMSI helped the San Bernardino Community College District land a $2 million Community-Based Job Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that will go toward a Nanotechnology Training Center. The announcement comes on the heels of a $400,000 grant SBCCD was awarded in 2007 from the California Community College’s Chancellor’s [...]

Josh Grodzin
Director, Economic Development
Choose DuPage
Lisle, Illinois
Josh Grodzin uses EMSI’s data analysis to help publish quarterly economic indicator reports for DuPage County. The reports are intended to give a quick snapshot of the county’s diverse economy – everything from the unemployment rate to the number of building permits issued to occupied industrial office space. With EMSI, [...]

Mary Beth Marshall
Executive Director
DuPage Workforce Board
Lisle, Illinois
EMSI’s labor market and education data played a key role in a Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago report that highlights the growing need to bolster the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills of the region’s workforce. The Chicago area has dealt with a rash of significant [...]

Green Jobs, part 3: A data-driven approach to defining, quantifying, and harnessing the green economy
To read Green Pathways (PDF): EMSI green jobs part 3 data spotlight
Summary
At the local level, the discussion of green jobs should be rooted in data as much as possible. As regions consider major investments in the green economy and workforce [...]

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in North Carolina contributes nearly $400 million to its service area, according to a recent EMSI impact study.  That amounts to about 4.4% of the area’s total annual income.
Here’s an excerpt from an A-B Tech news release:
The report concluded that A-B Tech plays a significant role in the local economy and [...]

With California community colleges seeking to understand how the growth of green jobs will affect workforce education and training, the state’s 10 Centers of Excellence came together to discuss how best to approach the issue. One of the outcomes for Michelle Marquez, director of the Central Valley Region Center of Excellence, was to dive into [...]