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Data, Data Everywhere...What's a County Leader to do?
County Elected Officials are bombarded with reports on the state, regional, and local economic health status. With so much information and so little time, what’s crucial to examine and further consider? More and more county leaders are faced with a barrage of economic indicators, often containing seemingly conflicting information.
Take for example two recent reports, released at about the same time, one from the New York State Business Council the other from the Fiscal Policy Institute. The Business Council’s “Economic Growth Index” gave an economic report card of sorts that applied letter grades to New York State as a whole and counties individually. Ratings were based on five factors including job growth, population growth, and earnings that compared the state and counties to national averages. The state and most counties fared pretty poorly in these ratings, New York State getting a “D” grade overall and upstate receiving an “F”. The Fiscal Policy Institute presented a somewhat rosier picture of New York’s economic health in “The State of Working New York, 2007” reporting the state, particularly upstate had made gains in wages and income in 2006, one factor credited to the upswing is the increase in the minimum wage in New York. Although the Fiscal Policy Institute reported good news, they do caution that there are some troubling longer-term trends, including a growing income gap between the haves and the have-nots; less job security and fewer benefits.
But what are these reports telling us? This is a caution, this interpretation is somewhat simplistic and really doesn’t do justice to either report (which are both excellent), but in essence the Fiscal Policy Institute is telling us the New York State economy, particularly worker earnings, is improving compared to where we were a few years ago. The Business Council is telling us New York is still in very poor shape compared to national averages. Both pieces of information are accurate and not mutually exclusive. Which receives more press coverage? The report card gets the attention, of course. Nothing puts a leader on the spot like a newspaper headline reporting their jurisdiction got an “F” or a “D” rating in any study, no matter what the topic.
What’s a leader to do when these reports of looming economic crisis arise? Short of having a crystal ball or investing in a magic eight ball to try to predict what reports are on the horizon, a leader can arm his or herself with good information about their economic climate. In this time of easy web access, there is almost unlimited economic data out there and I’m sure everyone has their own personal favorites. To perhaps help some of you wade through this mass of information, here are some of the web sites that are worth a look.
The US Census Fact Finder: The mother lode of demographic data about your county, including updated information. Easy to use, you can check everything from the education level of your workforce to how many people car-pool to work. The web site link is: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York issues many reports on the New York State and Regional Economies. The Buffalo Branch reports on upstate, including recent studies on “Brain Drain,” ”Micro-enterprises,” manufacturing and upstate aging population issues. The Federal Reserve Web Site is: www.ny.frb.org.
The Business Council of New York State. As a source of information on State and regional economies, the Business Council is often cited in the media. Recent reports include the aforementioned Economic Growth Index. One of the most interesting features of the Business Council site is the Knickerbocker Blog, a daily compilation of newspaper articles from all over the state which cover political, economic, workforce and other local news that affects the business environment of the State, particularly upstate. The Business Council Web Site is: http://www.bcnys.org.
The Fiscal Policy Institute. Organized Labor’s economic think-tank, the Fiscal Policy Institute, issues insightful and well balanced reports on economic trends affecting workers in New York State. Recent reports from the Institute include the previously mentioned “The State of Working New York 2007.” The Fiscal Policy Institute Web Site is: www.fiscalpolicy.org.
The New York State Department of Labor. The NYSDOL Division of Research and Statistics issues monthly information on regional and local labor force trends in New York State including unemployment rates, types of jobs available and hiring projections. Their information can be found at: http://www.workforcenewyork.org/lmi.
Once a leader is armed with good economic information about their county and region, then what’s to be done? A strategy you might want to employ is “getting behind the numbers” to find some of the underlying reasons for the trends. Doing this involves talking to a number of key individuals in your area. For example, you’ll want to speak with your Economic and Workforce Development Directors to get their perspectives. Also, assemble a group of some key business leaders together to get their ideas on what the data means.
Expect some of the information you collect to have a particular bias, and to get a good picture of what is going on in your local economy, it’s wise to get a number of perspectives. Economic trends have complex causes; they generally can’t be explained away with one or two pieces of data. By becoming familiar with the information that’s out there and what it means for the area, a leader will be much better equipped for whatever the next economic “report card” will be.