ON Regional Economic Development

I’m finding that with the Olympics taking place, there is a lot of talk about global economic trends and the potential financial impacts making the rounds at the local coffee shop.  Will your community be affected?  You might be thinking “How can I get started on answering this question and still get away from the office?” Simple, book an appointment and ask Analyst, EMSI Analyst.

Since 2013, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has provided Ontario communities, and not for profit economic development groups with access to a full range of data to support regional analysis in a free, user-friendly tool called Analyst. Monthly access allows users to export the data needed to respond to questions about industries, employment, occupations and earnings in your local or regional economy.

Depending on the filters used, Analyst rolls up information, producing customized reports on employment, business activity, educational programming, and demographics by choosing:

• a community/region
• a time frame
• industries/occupations

Analyst can help you get information to answer a range of questions about your community’s economy so you can assess impacts of different trends.  Analyst can help you discover your key industries, level of employment and specialisation in any industry or group of industries.  So let’s apply this to the current concern on the local economic impact of recent trends in the global economy, using a sample group of industries that might be influenced by recent external global trends (e.g. financial services, auto manufacturing, aerospace manufacturing, and pharmaceutical manufacturing).

Northern Ontario Industry Example

Data from EMSI Analyst.  Study group includes NAICS codes 3254, 3336, 3363, 3364, 3369, 5231, 5239, 5261, 5269.
From the table we can see that the potentially affected industries supply above average paying jobs and have been growing faster than the northern Ontario economy as a whole. On the other hand, the number of jobs within the potentially affected industries represents a low share of the total employment in all industries in the region, and a low level of employment concentration relative to the national economy.  Assuming the pundits are correct in picking industries that would be most affected by recent trends, one might expect the impact will not be as large in northern Ontario as in communities with higher levels of activity in these sectors, or regions with higher reliance on these activities. Data from EMSI Analyst.  Study group includes NAICS codes 3254, 3336, 3363, 3364, 3369, 5231, 5239, 5261, 5269.

While it sounds complicated when describing it on paper my time spent using Analyst to generate the report was less than 20 minutes. This includes creating the region, and running, exporting, naming and saving the reports for future use.

What about your community?   Would you like to have access to Analyst to run your own scenarios based on your industries and opportunities, in a region that you define?  Click this link for more information on accessing Analyst:  http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/rural/edr/edar/

Alternatively, your OMAFRA advisor can help you with simple data requests in Analyst, or help you get access for more complex needs.

For more information and resources on performance measurement, click here.

Author:

Dave Trivers-Agriculture Development Advisor

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs – Algoma