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| Regional View Newsletter | |||||||||||||
| November 2007 [pdf version] | |||||||||||||
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Table of Contents |
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Prosperity Partnership Salutes Legislative Action on Higher Education, 2007 Regional Competitiveness Indicators Up
increased, Washington fell from 36th in the U.S. to 37th in degree production. Thus it is important to continue to increase investment in our students in order to keep pace with our peers. The Indicators also show the region's venture capital investment is up by 28%, Washington's business start up rate lowered, while its closure rate remained stable, and housing affordability in the region continues to drop, with first time ownership a particular challenge.
Education indicators are improving in the central Puget Sound region and Washington but more needs to be done to build on the success of the 2007 legislative session. The 2007 Regional Competitiveness Indicators show high school graduation rates have improved in all four central Puget Sound counties from 2004-2005 and bachelor's degree production increased statewide in Washington. However, while production increased, Washington fell from 36th in the U.S. to 37th in degree production. Thus it is important to continue to increase investment in our students in order to keep pace with our peers. The Indicators also show the region's venture capital investment is up by 28%, Washington's business start up rate lowered, while its closure rate remained stable, and housing affordability in the region continues to drop, with first time ownership a particular challenge.
University of Washington President Dr. Mark Emmert explained the issue and opportunity in depth at the luncheon. "Over the past ten years, nationally we've seen a pretty sharp decline in science, math, and engineering interest across the nation, just at the same time we've seen our competitor nations shooting up in the other direction," said Dr. Emmert, a Prosperity Partnership Co-Chair. Washington is poised to buck this trend. "If you look at the U.W. in that same ten year time frame, we've seen a 30 percent increase overall in science technology and engineering degrees," Dr. Emmert continued. "And looking at the survey data that we get from our entering freshmen… their intention and interest in majoring in the high demand degrees has spiked, so they are hearing the message you are delivering, they may not be as prepared as we'd like them to be, but they hear that this is important. "We need to work in collaboration in recruiting students to think about higher education…and eliminate the access issues, especially the financial ones, so they know in the eighth grade, because that is when they really drop out of school, that this [higher education] is going to be waiting for them," finished Dr. Emmert. "It's getting the students to think about and understand and realize that they are naturally going to higher education and it's a regular part of the process." The Prosperity Partnership's Higher Education Working Group is gearing up to team up with the College and Work Ready Agenda to develop the pilot communications initiative and succeed on this effort. For more information, contact Bill McSherry at 206-971-3269 or bmcsherry@psrc.org.
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Key Regional Clusters Rebound from Recession
As a key component of its Regional Economic Strategy, the Prosperity Partnership defined a set of five target industry clusters - Aerospace, Information Technology, Clean Technology, Life Sciences, and Logistics & International Trade - on which to focus its economic development efforts.
The 2001 economic recession was felt keenly in the central Puget Sound region, but for the most part, the five clusters have recovered. Between March 2001 and March 2003, employment in the four-county area dropped by nearly 67,000 jobs. The Prosperity Partnership's targeted cluster industries, in particular, were significantly impacted. Of these regional job losses, 56 percent occurred in the target clusters, although in 2001 these industries accounted for 16 percent of regional employment.
Figure 1
Since 2004, job growth in the targeted cluster industries has accounted for 21 percent of regional employment growth. Between 2005 and 2006, Aerospace employment expanded at a rate of 9 percent, contributing 12 percent of new jobs in the region. Information Technology accounted for 9 percent of regional job growth during the same period. Job recovery in other clusters was more modest in absolute terms, although Clean Technology showed annual growth rates of 4.8 percent or more.
Employment data also illustrates the response of private enterprise to adjust and adapt in different ways. Examining the size and number of establishments in each cluster industry, we see different patterns during this period. In the Information Technology cluster, for example, large establishments (> 500 employees) employed a larger number of workers during the recession; much of the job loss occurred among mid- and smaller-size establishments (between 25 and 500 employees). Recent job gains occurred primarily in the same mid- and smaller-size range of establishments (see Figure 1). The number and size distribution of employers remained largely unchanged.
Figure 2
In Aerospace, a contrasting pattern occurred: at the lowest point of the recession in 2003, the number of very small establishments (under 25 workers) jumped by 275 percent, and employment for that category increased 40 percent, or 500 jobs. Employment losses occurred predominantly among large- and mid-size establishments (see Figure 2). Later, as large employers began to grow again, the number of small aerospace establishments declined.
Job growth has not always occurred in the same businesses which downsized during the recession. For example, the air transport component of Logistics and International Trade shows a 20 percent decline during the six years. This has been offset partially by increases in warehousing and trucking employment (34 and 11 percent total growth, respectively, since 2000). In the I.T. cluster, the number of jobs in component manufacturing have declined since 2000 (with the notable exception of storage device manufacturing), but there has been strong expansion in software publishing (45 percent job growth for the period).
The full version of this Trend is available online at psrc.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532. For more information, contact Michael Jensen at 206-464-7538 or mjensen@psrc.org.
| What is "Covered Employment"?
The data from the Employment Security Department reported in this article refer to employee positions "covered" under State unemployment insurance laws. Certain workers such as the self-employed, the military, religious organizations and most corporate officers are exempt and thus not represented. Covered employment generally constitutes 85 to 90 percent of total employment. The data represent jobs in March of the given year, and are made available approximately one year afterward. |
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