SEMCOG recently held a webinar to demonstrate a new interactive map called Laborshed in Southeast Michigan. It identifies where workers live, work, and their commutes between both locations. It can be a valuable tool to connect workers to employers who need their talent.
It also supports one of the six strategies in Increasing Shared Prosperity for a Resilient Economy, Southeast Michigan’s Economic Development Strategy:
- Preparing and Connecting Talent to Jobs recognizes that the region’s educated and well-trained workforce is our number one asset.
The mapping tool helps identify workers by residence and workplace using 14 industry sectors and 24 occupational categories. Commuter flows are also available by 7 industry sectors. All data are mapped by census tract, and this video provides a demonstration of how to use the tool.
The Laborshed map also allows users to see where non-working residents live. Nonworking residents are defined as people, age 16 and older, who do not have a job, nor are they currently looking for one. There may be many reasons for not working, including age, full-time school, caring for dependents, and lack of skills. Within this population is a subset of potential workers, who – if they had the right support (e.g., education, childcare, and/or transportation options) – could become members of the labor force. Nonworking residents can be filtered by age group.
SEMCOG has a wealth of data on Southeast Michigan’s labor force. Another mapping application is Commuting Patterns in Southeast Michigan, where you can visualize the number of commuters from one community to another. While only available in aggregate at the community level, the map allows users to view the total flow of workers from the selected community to destination/origin communities. Data for this map are available for years 2010 and 2016, and users can compare trends between both years. In addition to demonstrating this commuting map and providing additional labor force analysis in the webinar, SEMCOG staff discussed labor force and economic trends that are influencing future workforce need. Please visit SEMCOG’s On-Demand Webinar Library for this and other recordings. Please also visit SEMCOG’s Economic Development page for links to many other tools that support economic development.
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