Case/Sample Studies

• 06/05/2008.   The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Prince George's Planning Department presented a poster at the recent American Planning Association Conference in Las Vegas, NV. This poster, Who's Working Where" [PDF; File Size: 1.50MB], shows how the Census Bureau's Local Employment Dynamics (LED) can be used to identify characteristics of the workforce (individuals working in an area) and labor force (individuals living in an area) to address issues like job training, commuting, and other topics related to planning.
  
  
• 06/20/2007.   Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC), "Local Employment Dynamics (LED) in Use" [PDF; File Size: 3.59MB]. A 10-slide presentation depicting the many uses of LED data in reports, evalutating economic impacts, assisting with business retention and attraction, and disaster mitigation and assistance planning, by MERIC.
• 05/31/2007.   Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC), "Community Impact of Manufacturer’s Proposed Relocation" [PDF; File Size: 928KB].

  In response to a large manufacturer’s proposed relocation, MERIC developed a profile of the county and the community, using data captured in the DataFerrett Community Economic Development HotReport, Local Employment Dynamics' OnTheMap, and other sources, to show the impact to the community, should this relocation take place. In its analysis, MERIC determined that the community has a relatively young labor force, a rather low college-educated population, and a large number of young adults just about to enter the labor force. The loss of good jobs for high school graduates has the potential to severely impact that community. Numbers of young home owners in relatively new homes could also lead to possible bank exposure if good jobs become scarce.

  In this way Labor Market Information in the form of LED and HotReports data helped to answer three critical questions for economic development: (1) How much effort do we want to make to retain this business?; (2) If we need to offer tax incentives to achieve retention, what kind of incentives should we offer?; and (3) What kinds of benchmarks do we use to insure that the company is living up to its end of a retention agreement?
  
  

• 04/06/2007.   Missouri Department of Development, Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC), "Community Impact of Plant Layoffs" [PDF; File Size: 132KB].
  
  In response to a St Louis Dispatch article, projecting the layoff of an estimated 1,300 people at the Chrysler Fenton Plant in Missouri, and in order to help plan for the allocation of community response resources, MERIC did an analysis of communities in Missouri and Illinois that might be impacted by job losses, using Local Employment Dynamics data, to show where the people were living who would be affected by this layoff.
  
  How they did it: First, the exact census block in which the Chrysler plant is located was identified using the plant's street address. The LED O/D file (this Origin/Destination file identifies the number of workers going from one specific census block to another) was limited to only those observations with that census block as the geocode for the work block. Next, the all-jobs and all-jobs-private values were aggregated to the block group level. The all-jobs data were then transferred to Excel for use in ArcGIS in creating the community impact map. Finally, the LED Area Profile Report from OnTheMap for the census block group where the plant was located was generated for comparison with the block detail.
  


• 01/2007.  Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board with Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Economic Development.
  "Managing the Changing Workforce in Southwestern Pennsylvania: A Closer Look at Issues Related to Our Region's Aging Workforce", used to define the "aging issue" and examine how changing demographics may shape the region's workforce composition and growth potential. Study results were based on a number of primary and secondary sources, notably including the Local Employment Dynamics (LED), a new data source developed by the US Census Bureau.



• 12/2006.  State of Working Illinois. "Illinois Baby Boomer Retirements - The Economic Implications." [PDF: File Size: 640KB]



• 11/2006.  State of Working Illinois. "Illinois Replacing the Baby Boomers - An Industry Perspective." [PDF: File Size: 636KB]



• 11/2006.  Maine Department of Labor. "Career Center Customer Outcomes - Washington County, July 2002 to June 2005." [PDF: File Size: 796KB]



• 09/2006.  Maine Department of Labor. "Employment and Earnings Outcomes for Recently Arrived Refugees in Portland, Maine." [PDF: File Size: 688KB]



• Scott Air Force Base, IL: Military Base Realignment. [PDF: File Size: 244KB]



• Hannibal, MO - Quincy, IL: Interstate Commutation and Spatial Profile. [PDF: File Size: ???KB]



• Jerome, IL: Disaster Response and Spatial Profile. [PDF: File Size: 212KB]



• Using LED to Map Potential Youth Labor and Potential Youth Employers: [PDF; File Size: 300KB] A local Workforce Investment Board wanted to identify the geographic relationship between where youth live and where employers likely to hire youth are located, including the extent to which public transportation is available for those opportunities.



• Using Census Bureau Data to Encourage Economic Development in Calvert County, Maryland [PDF; File Size: 1.05MB]



• The Jacob France Institute, University of Baltimore. "WIA Performance Standard Adjustments" [PDF; File Size: 107KB], Ref: LED WD-2003-06 [PDF; File Size: 107KB]



• Missouri Department of Economic Development. "Recommendations for Allocating Missouri's Retraining Funds" [PDF; File Size: 424KB], Ref: LED EXT-2003-01 [PDF; File Size: 424KB]



• Office of Educational Accountability and Information Services. "Educational Data Uses - The Partnership between the State of Florida and the Census Bureau" [PDF; File Size: 229KB], Ref: LED WD-2003-04 [PDF; File Size: 229KB]



• "Using QWIs to Target WIA Needs" [PDF; File Size: 550KB], Ref: LED PN-2003-06 [PDF; File Size: 550KB]