Data and Research

Posted by on June 26, 2014

In today’s business and economic world, everything is by the numbers. With increased competitiveness both domestically and globally, organizations and individuals are relying more and more on data and metrics in order to be the most informed when they have to make tough decisions.

Data can come from a variety of sources. Whether it be BLS, BEA, QCEW, IPEDS, LAPI or CES, a large “alphabet soup” can happen when you’re using these different sources to look at the bigger picture or articulate the data to an audience. Fortunately, we at the LSCP have a great resource to help called Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (or EMSI, another acronym). EMSI is a tool that we use to aggregate 90+ of these “alphabet soup” data sources into one easy-to-use analyst.

Through the EMSI analyst, data is available over a 20+ year span that we can use to look at both historical data and projections for future years. Currently, the LSCP is developing the 2013 Marquette County Data Booklet that uses analyst reports to tell the economic story of Marquette County so we can better prepare and be informed when decision-making time strikes.

First, our research shows that employment is increasing and is projected to continue going up. During the Great Recession, Marquette County saw two years of decreasing employment for a total of 1358 jobs lost. However, we have since recovered to pre-Recession job numbers, with growth in 2013 totaling 1136 jobs!

Over the past 10 years, the lowest unemployment rate Marquette County saw was 5.7%, which occurred in 2005. We lagged a bit behind the state and nation when the Great Recession hit, and our unemployment rate peaked at 10.1% in 2010, nearly double what it was just five years prior. However, we quickly recovered and the unemployment rate was 7.7% for 2013, which is below Michigan’s 8.8% and right on par with the nation’s 7.5%.

Industry changes have been very interesting in the county over the past 10 years as well. The information sector lost 34% of its workforce from 2003-2013 and construction lost 6%. During that same time, finance and insurance grew 41%, utilities by 35% and manufacturing by 23%. Overall, the sector that saw the most growth in job numbers was Health Care and Social Assistance, which grew by nearly 500 jobs during that time period, but those jobs only count for 8% growth in that industry.

One interesting report we like to look at is Gross Regional Product, or GRP. GRP measures the final market value of all goods and services produced within the region, which in this case is Marquette County. Some of these goods and services are consumed locally and some are exported, but GRP is a great indicator of the heavy-hitting industries in the region. Of total 2012 GRP, the Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector accounts for 21.7%, or $588,684,000.  The Health Care and Social Assistance sector accounts for 14.2% GRP.

Historically, the population of the U.P. and Michigan has been decreasing, but Marquette has been on the rise, even throughout the Great Recession years. By 2021, the local population is projected to reach 69,405, which will be about 22.6% of the U.P.’s population in that same year.

Data is a wonderful thing, and can tell us a lot about our community while arming us with the information we need to get the job done. Look for more data in the LSCP’s upcoming Marquette County Data Booklet, which will be hitting the streets this summer.

– Derek Bush, LSCP Business Development Representative

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