Filling hard-to-fill jobs impact

Hi, I've been working with United Way in my area on a program that assists students in hard-to-fill occupational programs (as defined by local surveys and BLS projections) at the local post-secondary education providers with financial resources to help keep them in those programs. These are education areas we know lead to good outcomes, living wage occupations, and have many openings in the region. My question is about measuring the impact of this program. We have good data on the grant recipients who've graduated in their respective fields, what their before and after incomes are, and what occupation they're in (which gives us a pretty good handle on industry around here). So while I'm sure we can just use an income change model, I'm wondering if it would be possible to use the industry change instead, to capture that indirect component? Otherwise, we get impacts on the community, but not really the impact to those businesses, which would directly impact donations related to these programs. I'd like to be able to say, here's the impact on these folks, the community, and the businesses who couldn't fill those positions. I realize IMPLAN is really designed more for industry expansion/contraction in terms of jobs. But I'm curious if we could use IMPLAN to somehow quantify what a difficult to fill position is worth to an employer. For example, how much is an open welding position worth to an employer in terms of lost or unrealized output? If a position is open for a long time, would it behave like an expansion when finally filled, if the business could serve more market demand with that position filled? Thanks for your help on this! Scott Hodek Economist - WI DWD

IMPLAN Support

November 11, 2016 13:22

Hello Scott, You can use an Industry Change approach to measure the amount of Output related to the position. Below are a few things to consider. IMPLAN is an annual model. If the filled position was open for less than a year, then the Output estimation will be higher than actual Output. In IMPLAN, there is no distinction between types of employment positions (e.g., welding versus accounting). Therefore, using Employment as your input value simply impacts the operations value of an industry by the Output Per Worker ratio for that industry. However, it sounds as if you may have information about how much these filled positions pay. If you have the Employee Compensation value for these positions (which includes benefits and payroll taxes), then we suggest using this as your input. From the firm’s perspective, the change in output also implies some costs. The firm retains only a portion of this Output (Other Property Income: OPI); the Employee Compensation, Intermediate Expenditures, and Taxes on Production and Imports) - and some of Proprietor Income, depending on the situation - are all new costs associated with the firm’s ability to fill the position. Finally, this approach will capture the Induced impact of the employee of this position spending his/her labor income. Therefore, you will not need to conduct a Labor Income Change activity alongside your Industry Change activity. Regards, IMPLAN Staff

Filling hard-to-fill jobs impact

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