The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program provides capacity-building grants to drive innovation and the development of model training programs at America’s community colleges and universities.  TAACCCT-funded programs help to address workforce shortages by preparing individuals for high-wage, high-skill occupations by using innovative and sophisticated learning strategies that reach large numbers of individuals.  The grant program offers a unique opportunity to fund training to address community’s critical workforce challenges by creating collaborative and strategic programs to better prepare today and tomorrow’s talent pipeline. This opportunity represents the third round of a $2-billion, 4-year program.

Successful grantees have proposed a wide range of solutions in the first two rounds.  A few examples are included below:   

Round 1 – Pennsylvania Consortium of Community Colleges ($20,000,000)

Pennsylvania’s fourteen community colleges are collaborating in an unprecedented way to address Pennsylvania’s critical workforce challenges.  The guiding principles that are included in their approach are:

• standardization of courses as the basic building blocks for programs;
• customization of programs using the building blocks to meet needs of employers and students in a volatile marketplace; and
• regionalization of capacity building based on varying industry mixes and priorities in different regions of the state.

The grant program has allowed the fourteen colleges and their partners to work together to build capacity to better prepare the workforce with skills for the Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics, Energy Distribution, Production and Conservation, and Healthcare Technology industries.

Round 2 – Quincy College Biotechnology and Compliance Program ($2,995,641)

The Quincy College Biotechnology and Compliance Program, based on replication of two successful biomanufacturing training programs, integrates the use of virtual laboratories into its evidence-based, blended-learning approach.  The program combines training on traditional manufacturing technology with emerging, in – demand, ‘single –use’ technology. Partners will provide paid internships to program students in the field. The resulting program credentials will meet the Boston area’s growing demand for specialized middle skills technicians, as well as the area’s need for jobs for displaced workers.

Want to lean more about other successful ETA grants? Additional abstracts and information can be found on the ETA's website: http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct/grantawards.cfm.

Click here to download a full list of upcoming ETA funding opportunities.

This information was provided by Lucy Houchin, Senior Project Consultant at Thomas P. Miller and Associates. For additional information, contact Lucy at: lhouchin@tpma-inc.com. (We hear she’s their grant “guru”.)

For this month’s featured indicator, we look at data comparing health care spending and outcomes. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States spends two-and-a-half times more per capita than the OECD average of developed nations on health care despite having worse outcomes than many. At 17.4% of GDP in 2009, US expenditures are about 50% more than the next highest spender, Norway. There are many reasons for why US spending is so much higher, but it is clearly not because of relative wealth, access to care, quality of care, or any other single factor. What is clear is that health care has become a much bigger part of our economy than most other developed countries.

Within the United States, it is interesting to note that the level of health care expenditures has virtually no bearing on outcomes. While it is true that 7 of the top 10 healthiest states are also among the heaviest 15 spenders, when taken as a % of Gross State Product, this apparent association between spending and good outcomes disappears. Of the top 4 spenders relative to GSP, Vermont and Maine are among the healthiest states in the nation, while West Virginia and Mississippi are the least healthy. Vermont and Maine have relatively low per capita income, despite their high performance.

Why is this Important?

What matters more than the level of spending is what people are getting for that spending. By this measure, one of the top performing states is Utah, which is ranked the 7^th healthiest state despite its place as the second lowest spender, at only 13% of GSP. Places that achieve healthy outcomes without spending a lot will have greater opportunities to boost their economies by spending on other goods and services, or investment in new businesses and innovations. High health care spending may hurt economic competitiveness, because it diverts expenditures from other more productive value-added industries.

Click here to download the data.

Sources:

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). 2011. http://www.bea.gov/regional/index.htm

Kaiser Family Foundation. 2009. http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/health-spending-per-capita/#

America's Health Rankings. United Health Foundation. 2012. http://www.americashealthrankings.org/Rankings

“Why Is Health Spending in the United States so High?” Health At a Glance 2011. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). http://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/healthataglance2011.htm

This month’s Economic Development Navigator includes articles about workforce development funding as well as economic & fiscal impact analysis.  At the intersection of these two themes lies the question, “What is the fiscal impact of investments that the public makes in its workforce?”  In other words, what is the public ROI for those dollars that we, as a society, spend on workforce development programs?  As the title of this post notes, the question is a very challenging one for the reasons explained below. 

Public ROI, at its simplest, is the comparison of dollars invested today to dollars received in the future.  In this case, the “dollars invested” are the workforce development program costs themselves.  (Note: “dollars invested” might also include lost tax revenue that results from taking someone out of a job and putting them into a non-paid training situation).  The “dollars received in the future” factor, however, is much more complicated and requires a host of assumptions to calculate.  Those factors might include:

1. Higher wages and benefits could accrue to those employed, allowing for increased spending and therefore higher levels of property, sales, hotel and income taxes.
2. Reduced public costs in the form of lower transfer payments made to, and social services needed by people with better and more stable employment prospects.
3. Higher commercial tax revenues – with a more capable employment pool (and, presumably, lower turnover), businesses will be more profitable and stable, leading to more commercial tax base and revenues.

Additional and important challenges involve the “time-value-of-money” concept and the level of uncertainty involved in measuring future public benefits.  The time-value-of-money is simply the idea that a dollar in the future is worth less than a dollar today.  So, a $1 million investment today in workforce development has to yield more than $1 million in benefits in the future to be justified.  A community could use its benchmark interest rate to discount the future dollars to the present value today.  Let’s say that is 5% - that means that the $1 million investment that comes to fruition in three years would actually have to yield at least a benefit of  $1.16 million in year three to be justified (this is a highly simplified example).  But that then leads to the second element, the idea of uncertainty.  The factors listed above as “dollars received in the future” are subject to a very high level of uncertainty for obvious reasons --- program effectiveness is hard to measure and actual number of future dollars received is subject to all the subjectivity biases hinted at above.  Uncertainty in this public sector example is highly synonymous with “risk” in the private sector, and when there is risk, investors (public or private) should demand a higher ROI.  So, if we require not a 5% return but a 10% return, that original $1 million investment  better yield $1.33 million in future benefits to be worth it. This is yet another challenge to the analysis --- determining the “hurdle rate” that the investment should attain given the risk.

With all that said, there are other considerations beyond simply the financial ROI calculation. Most people would agree that there are substantial nonfinancial benefits of workforce development as well, including community stewardship, investment in future generations and generally providing a helping hand to those in need.  As a long-ago teacher of mine was fond of saying, “You think education is expensive?  Try ignorance!”

Acknowledgement:

Hollenbeck, Kevin. Return on Investment in Workforce Development Programs.  Upjohn Institute working paper 12-188. 2012.

Editors Note: Over the next few months we will be highlighting some our recent economic and fiscal impact analyses. These projects range from Florida to Maine and vary significantly in project type from mixed-use to rail-trail. At the end of the series we will present some of the highlights and lessons learned for conducting impact analyses.

To start out the Economic Navigator series on economic and fiscal impact analysis, I thought it would be best to highlight a project from one of the most beautiful areas in the world, the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys. Let’s just say that I found myself day dreaming about making a trip there quite a few times throughout the project, can you blame me? Check out the pictures below. 

The original Seven Mile Bridge was completed in 1912 as a railroad bridge connecting mainland Florida to Key West.  In 1938, it was converted and used as a highway bridge until 1982 when the new Seven Mile Bridge was completed.  In 2008, the Florida Department of Transportation prohibited vehicular use on the original Seven Mile Bridge, citing structural deficiencies. Today, what is now known as the Old Seven Mile Bridge is in need of structural improvements in order to remain open to the public.  In addition to ensuring that the bridge meets structural integrity standards, there are intentions to make enhancements to the bridge and adjacent areas, making the whole complex a linear park and an “open air museum”.

In 2011, the non-profit organization Friends of Old Seven (FO7) was created to save the Bridge from being condemned. FO7 was named by both Monroe County and the City of Marathon as the lead partner in the public-private partnership venture to save the Old Seven Mile Bridge and to make it a more attractive tourist destination with interpretive signs, increased promotion and marketing, and daily, weekly and monthly events that they project will bring thousands of additional people to the area who otherwise would not visit. 

This project was interesting because of its role as part of the larger tourism industry that exists in and around southern Florida and Key West. The Bridge is located in the Middle Keys Region, beginning in the small city of Marathon and connecting to Pigeon Key, an island with significant historic resources. While the Bridge currently attracts nearly 160,000 users per year (some local, some non-local), those familiar with the Bridge believe that with some improvements it will attract even more visitors and play a larger role in tourism in the Florida Keys.  Camoin Associates worked with FO7 to understand how the Project would impact the Middle Keys region in terms of sales, jobs, wages, and tax revenue in year one following completion of the project, as well as over the useful life of the project (30 years).  Results of the study are currently being used by FO7 to illustrate the positive economic and fiscal impacts of the Bridge to hopefully gain financial support from municipalities, private funders, and other organizations for the project.  Highlights of the analysis are shown below.

 

This analysis was particularly interesting because we had to take into consideration the fact that without the project, the Bridge would cease to exist and, therefore, all current economic impact would be lost as well as any potential for future growth. So we had to first determine the impact of the current usage by considering local versus non-local users, and then estimate what the likely increase in usage would be following the significant investment in the structure and marketing/promotion efforts.

For more information on the Bridge please visit FriendsofOldSeven.org.

 

Photo Source: Friends of Old Seven

Camoin Associates is keenly interested in the transformation of our economy and the future of economic development.  We strongly believe that success in the future economy requires new skills and capacities for economic developers.  In an effort to help develop those skills Graceland University has teamed with Rick Smyre President of the Communities of the Future to offer online coursework on developing "Leadership for the New and Emerging Economy ".

The first course as part of this online series is a six week course starting April 29th on “Crowdsourcing for Economic development”.  Crowdsourcing has grown in significance as a means for developing products, services and initiatives in an open, collaborative environment that is facilitated on-line. In economic development, crowdsourcing presents an opportunity to design, develop, and launch initiatives and services to grow our economies.  Through this course participants will work both on their own and as part of an on-line learning team.  Content will be organized around four sections:

• The Context and Content of a New and Emerging Economy, the “Creative Molecular Economy”
• Preparing for a Future Forward Workforce
• Identifying Weak Signals and Adapting to Constant Change
• Developing Business and Personal Skills of a Transformational Leader

If you are interested, the University has given us permission to allow colleagues and friends to enroll in the course at a substantially reduced fee of $250.  The tuition for others is $695.  If there are other individuals who could benefit from the course, please let Jim Damicis know so he can include them with your group for the offer.  For information and questions about enrolling in the course, contact Jim using his information below.  

Jim Damicis, Senior Vice President, Camoin Associates

Phone:  207-831-1061

Two of the articles in this month’s newsletter deal with the “Creative Class.” In her article What is a Creative Occupation Anyway? Christa Franzi explained that there are different definitions of the Creative Class depending on what is most useful. In this month’s featured indicator, we explore exactly what some of the top creative occupations are and what useful information can be derived from this knowledge.

We looked at the nationwide data for 88 creative occupations according to the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) definition and found that a large share of Creative Class jobs are in fact in supporting industries or “peripheral” creative occupations. Postsecondary teachers, restaurant workers, and recreation workers are projected to grow the most over the next 10 years. Other “core” occupations, writers, designers, musicians, and photographers, are also high on the list. The creative occupations expected to lose the most jobs in the next 10 years include printing and publishing workers, architectural drafters, furniture finishers, and repairers of instruments. Most creative occupations are projected to grow; however, creative occupations as a whole are expected to grow slower than the overall job growth rate for the U.S. (12.0% vs. 13.5%).

Why is this Significant?

It’s important to remember that not every place can be a hotbed of creative activity, and with creative occupations projected to grow more slowly than overall employment, economic developers may reasonably wonder why they would want to invest in growing these industries in their regions. Although creative occupations tend to pay well, they represent a relatively small number of jobs, around 10 million nationally. As such, the indirect and induced effects of creative class spending are limited.

On the other hand, investing in the creative class is about more than just trickle-down spending. It’s about investing in a culture of innovation and new ideas, the benefits of which may not be realized for years to come. So while not every struggling city should invest in advertising itself as a creative mecca, any place can take steps to promote a culture that invites diversity and cultivates creativity among its people, employers, and institutions. The allure of the Creative Class is that when creative people come together, they tend to come up with new businesses and innovations that make life better for all.

Download the full dataset for all NEFA creative occupations here. 

Resiliency and sustainability have been around as concepts in regional and community planning for many years. They have received growing attention recently in the wake of extreme weather events including Katrina, Irene, and Sandy. Discussions of resiliency typically focus on the ability of regions or communities to recover from destruction to land, buildings, and infrastructure. Discussions of sustainability typically focus on courses of action that minimize the impact on the environment and natural resources. When considered in these terms, resiliency and sustainability tend to be viewed as directly related to land use and community planning policies and practices and only marginally related to economic development.

In fact, both resiliency and sustainability concepts are integral to economic development. Long-term economic development success demands economies that are both resilient and sustainable. Two concepts help connect resiliency and sustainability to economic development and can therefore better connect economic development to land use and community planning. This will allow for the implementation of integrated policies and programs leading to better long term success. These concepts include economic diversity and local workforce.

Economic Diversity

Some industry/commercial sectors are more impacted by natural disasters and depending on the extent of the damage take longer to recover such as tourism, agriculture, and transportation intensive sectors. An over reliance on any one industry for its economic base puts local and regional economies at risk and therefore makes these economies less resilient. Additionally, over reliance on one or a few industry sectors can also negatively impact sustainability. This is particularly true in cases of over reliance leading to natural resource depletion in terms of land, water, species, or habitats. Spreading the economic base across multiple sectors reduces these risks and negative externalities.

Local Workforce

A strong workforce that is available locally to support economic growth also increases resiliency and sustainability. It provides the skills and talent needed to support existing business and as well as new opportunities. It allows companies to adapt to changes and therefore increase survivability and future growth. It does so in a manner that reduces costs related to importing commuters including costs related to traffic congestion, transportation infrastructure, and the related energy consumption costs. Additionally, a strong local workforce supporting local businesses also keeps wealth within the area creating economic benefits for residents to spend and circulate money locally and be able to afford housing. This not only builds strong local economies but helps build community ownership and networks.

Economic diversity and local workforce are two concepts that should be part of planning for resiliency and sustainability. Camoin Associates is currently working with the City of Newark, NJ to integrate these concepts into their economic development planning. In future articles I will focus on the results of this work and how it can be applied in other communities and regions.

I’m a sucker for a good map, sit me down with a Rand McNally atlas and I am a happy camper for hours. That is probably why a recent series by Richard Florida in The Atlantic Cities caught my eye. The 10-part series is mapping major US cities to study where certain classes of workers are concentrated. The organization of occupation types is one way to understand the organization of our nation’s cities.

As you can see in a blog post written by Christa Franzi, there are varying definitions for the creative class. In this analysis creative class, service class, and working class definitions are as follows: 

Creative Class: people who work in science and technology, business and management, arts, culture media and entertainment, and law and healthcare professions.

Service Class: low-wage, low-skill work in routine jobs such as food service and preparation, retail sales, and clerical and administrative positions.

Working Class:  factory jobs as well as transportation, maintenance, transportation, and construction

This post concentrates on the mapping of the Boston metro area and the Houston metro area. These two cities are geographically different and in very different stages in their development.

Boston:

The map below shows the City of Boston with the purple indicating the concentration of the creative class occupations and the red the concentration of service class occupations.  One of the most striking characteristics is the lack of working class occupation concentrations (would be shown in blue).  The lack of working class occupations is particularly interesting due to the historical strength of factory and production based employment in the textile and shoe industry in Boston. Richard Florida points out that:

“…there is not a single Census tract in the city where the working class makes up as much as half of the residents.¹

The growth in universities, health care, and other office based industries priced out much of the working class occupations, leaving the City to be primarily creative and service based.

A closer look at the organization of occupations within the City of Boston shows that the northern part of the City is concentrated in the creative class whereas the service class is located in the southern part of the City.  The creative class is concentrated in the City’s central business district where there are concentrations of banks, offices, insurance companies, etc.  There is also a strong concentration in Cambridge, which is where Harvard and MIT are located.

The City of Boston proper is much smaller than the larger metro within which it is situated, with people traveling far distances using the commuter rail and other transportation options into the City. The high cost of living and lack of affordable housing has pushed out much of the lower paying workers.

Houston:

Compared to the City of Boston, the City of Houston is a lot more integrated with a combination of creative, service, and working class occupations all within the City limits. The City of Houston is the fifth largest metro in the nation and is home to more than six million people. The City has seen significant population growth in the last decade as a result of people migrating from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  The footprint of the City is also large due to annexation between 1940 and 1980, a land management tool that is not used in Boston.

One of the most interesting things about Houston is the concentration of working class occupations in the City, which is different than many other post-industrial cities.  Richard Florida notes that:

 “Houston has by far the largest number of concentrated urban working class enclaves of any city covered in this series. This reflects the region's history as a center for the petroleum, petrochemical and related industries, as well as blue-collar activity around Port of Houston, one of the nation's busiest.²

Similar to the Boston map, the downtown area is home to creative class occupations as there is a concentration of offices and headquarters. Also similar to the Boston map is the concentration of service class occupations near the airports.

To see more of the analysis of the occupation maps, please visit: The Atlantic Cities at www.theatlanticcities.com. 

____________________

• ¹  http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/03/class-divided-cities-boston-edition/5017/
 

If you know the name Richard Florida, you’ve more than likely heard of the “Creative Class”. In a nut shell, Florida argues that for areas to compete in today’s economy they must attract engineers, architects, artists, and other people in creative occupations by offering a high quality of life. The thesis is simple enough to grasp but things get a little sticky when it comes time to define exactly what a creative occupation is.

There are certain occupations that are clearly creative; designers, artists, writers, photographers, and architects all easily fit into what we imagine a creative occupation to be. But, what about supporting occupations such as photographic equipment repairers, sewers/tailors, and tour guides? And what do we do with occupations that may not actually produce something creative but require the ability to think creatively such as: advertisers, lawyers, and teachers?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) definition is based on identifying occupations that require high levels of creative thinking and includes occupations such as lawyers, top executives, financial managers, sales occupations, etc.  It excludes health care practitioners and technical occupations as well as schoolteachers and aides - categories that tend to serve the resident population. USDA’s definition for creative occupations is very broad and includes about 42 million jobs in the U.S.  (roughly 23% of the total U.S. workforce).

The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) has conducted significant research into the creative economy and their definition includes occupations and industries that focus on the production and distribution of cultural goods, services, and intellectual properties. This definition includes a group of “core” creative occupations such as artists and designers found in most definitions and “peripheral” occupations that support the core. Peripheral occupations include recreational workers, photographic process workers, cooks, ushers, model makers, etc. The NEAF definition includes about 10 million jobs in the U.S. (approximately 5% of the total U.S. workforce). To set themselves apart from other definitions, NEAF refers to this as the “Creative Culture”.

So which definition is best? It really depends on what aspect of the creative economy you are trying to understand and there is absolutely no reason you can’t get a little creative yourself and develop your own definition to fit your community - as long as it is well-defined and consistent. Some clients have even asked us to combine the two definitions above into a super group of creative types that includes both creative thinkers and producers. Every community is different, that’s what makes it exciting!

For additional information on creative occupations, check out these links:

• U.S. Department of Agriculture creative class definition: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/creative-class-county-codes.aspx#.UVCEqRfCaSo.
• New England Foundation for the Arts: http://www.nefa.org/
• The Creative Economy: A New Definition, New England Foundation for the Arts: http://www.nefa.org/sites/default/files/ResearchCreativeEconReport2007.pdf

Final Design of Waterfront Access with Pedestrian Bridge & Walkway 

Proposals Due: Monday April 15, 2013 by 4:00 PM

The Village of Northville has a unique opportunity to provide public waterfront access on the south basin of the Northville Lake. The services requested include the final design and permitting for an 80 foot pedestrian bridge, 815 foot pedestrian walkway, picnic areas, parking areas, waterfront access including handicap access with a dock, and small vessel boat launch. The available budget for this scope of work is $84,300. 

Funding for this project comes in part through an EPF grant administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). Under Article 15A, Executive Law, the State of New York is committed to providing Minority and Women Owned Business (MWBE) equal opportunity to participate in government contracts. MWBE businesses are encouraged to apply.

The Village of Northville has hired Camoin Associates to assist with grant administrative and project management services as needed.  Please direct any questions regarding this RFP to Christa Franzi via phone at 518-899-2608 x101 or e-mail at christa@camoinassociates.com. 

Click here to download the full RFP.