How to Identify Important Regional Industries

This tutorial addresses how to find important regional industries; those that are providing lots of jobs, paying well, are unique to your region, and competitive in the national scope. In this example we’ll look for industries important to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The numbers used to determine importance might be different depending on your region, but the workflow should stay the same.

1. Click Research Industries
2. Click Industry Table
3. Under ‘Select Industries’, choose All Available
4. Under ‘Select a Region’, enter your county, state, or other region
5. Click Custom Data Selection and select:
   1. Under ‘Jobs’, select Start Year, End Year
   2. Under ‘Change’, select Jobs Change
   3. Under ‘Earnings’, select Current Total Earnings
   4. Under ‘Location Quotient’, select Current Year
   5. Under ‘Shift Share,’ select Competitive Effect
6. Click Select
7. Click Run

In the left sidebar options under ‘Timeframe’ select a period including 2-3 years of historic figures. We’ll use 2010 – 2104 here. Under “Class of Worker” select Employees. We now have a listing of all industries in Green Bay, with job counts, earnings, concentration (LQ), and competitiveness. Let’s refine this list a bit.

1. In the table, click the Location Quotient column header to sort the industries by concentration
2. Click Filter at the top of the table
3. In the first menu bar select 2014 Jobs
4. In the second menu, select greater than or equal to
5. In the last menu, enter 100
6. Click +Add Filter, and repeat the steps to add the following filters:
   1. AND >> Current Total Earnings >> greater than or equal to >> $55,000 (regional average for Green Bay is about $53,000)
   2. AND >> Competitive Effect >> greater than or equal to >> 1
7. Click Apply

 

You now have a list of industries that employ at least 100 people, pay above average, are more concentrated in Green Bay than the national average, and are performing above expectations based on national trends.

 

Related:

What is Location Quotient or Concentration?

What is Shift Share?

Advanced Industry Drivers (using GRP, exports, multipliers)