by
David J. Peters
dpeters@ded.state.mo.us
This analysis has provided indicators of the national competitiveness of a region's occupational base in the advanced services industries in the central Midwest. Occupational similarity can be used by economic developers and policy officials in two ways. First, ranking the similarity scores within a region provides a form of industry targeting that indicates which industries are best suited to the occupational base in the region. Second, industries with high dissimilarity are identified so that programs can be developed which strengthen the labor force in the region in order to make the area more attractive to selected industries.
In general, the occupational base in most Missouri communities is highly similar to the health, educational and social services industries. This indicates that many Missouri communities have a national competitive advantage in terms of labor for these industries. Therefore, communities can use this information to recruit these types of firms, emphasizing the compatibility and availability of their labor force to that firm's needs.
Conversely, the occupational base in most Missouri communities is highly dissimilar to the museums, art galleries, zoos, communications, membership organizations engineering, accounting and miscellaneous services industries. This indicates that many Missouri communities do not have the needed labor required to support these industries. Therefore, communities can use this information to craft education and training programs to develop specific segments of the labor force.
Full Report
Section A
p-0503-1-a.PDF (793KB)Section B
p-0503-1-b.PDF (862KB)
