Do you really know  the economic drivers for your area? Or is your economic development plan based more on opinion than fact? Perhaps you lack the tools to adequately assess the opportunities your market area offers. Enter Economic Modeling Specialists International’s (EMSI) Analyst, now available to economic developers throughout the state through a new partnership between WEDC and Wisconsin’s nine Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs).

What is EMSI Analyst?

EMSI Analyst gives users comprehensive, up-to-date local employment and industry data easily modeled to a user-specific region. With EMSI Analyst, users can define the geographic area that best fits their analysis needs, from the entire state of Wisconsin to a specific county, metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or ZIP code.

Once a user has defined the area he or she wants to study, EMSI Analyst allows the user to perform in-depth analyses on the industries that fuel the area’s economy. EMSI Analyst puts a wealth of information at a user’s fingertips, including the following:

• Location quotient (LQ) information for the defined region
• Job change within an industry
• Unemployment within an industry
• Industries with similar staffing patterns
• Supply chain dynamics

Users can use EMSI Analyst to identify regional occupation mix and staffing patterns and can conduct wage comparisons between industries and geographies.

Economic development professionals throughout the country use EMSI Analyst data to pinpoint high-growth industries and uncover gaps in their supply chains. EMSI Analyst also highlights skills gaps in current and future workforce, allowing users to take action to ensure the availability of needed workers for maximum productivity and competitiveness.

With EMSI, users are also able to anticipate the impact of expansions or contractions within an industry or simulate the effects a project will have on other industries.

Simply put, EMSI Analyst will give users the needed insight to build effective economic development plans that make the most of resources.

How can you access EMSI Analyst?

To begin making more data-driven decisions to advance your area’s economic performance, contact the RPC representing your county today.

(March 2013)