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4.11 Target Market Employment by Industry Analysis Questionnaire

What is the benefit of having an Employment by Industry analysis in the business plan for an Plumbing and Heating Contractor?

The Employment by Industry analysis is critical for understanding the demographic make-up of a target market like Mecklenburg County. While our labor force and unemployment rate analysis gives a very good overall picture of the employment health of the economy, they do not give give us the granularity and detail about what kind of employment the working population of Mecklenburg County is engaged in. The Employment by Industry analysis does just that.

When we use the Employment by Industry analysis in conjunction with the Establishments by Industry analysis we are able to get a powerful combination of analytical tools that gives us an excellent view of how many business establishments there in each industry in a target market like Mecklenburg County and just how many jobs do each of these industry groups provide for the working population of Mecklenburg County.

What is the Employment by Industry analysis for Mecklenburg County compared to?

The Employment by Industry analysis for Mecklenburg County is compared to a similar analysis done in this template for the State of North Carolina. The reason for this comparison of course is that if we don't compare the number and proportion of employment for each industry in the target market of Mecklenburg County to a similar number for the State of North Carolina or the region, we will never be able to understand the deviations and discrepancies that exist in the data. Comparisons of the percentage of Employment by Industry to State averages is an excellent way to find out which industry sectors provide the most jobs in a target market like Mecklenburg County and which industry sectors do not provide much employment there.

In order to conduct this analysis for Mecklenburg County we have classified the industry groups as follows:

  1. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Agricultural, Mining and Forestry Industries.
  2. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Construction Industry.
  3. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Manufacturing Industry.
  4. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Wholesale Trade Industry.
  5. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Retail Trade Industry.
  6. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Transportation and Warehousing Industries.
  7. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Information Industry.
  8. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Industries.
  9. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Professional Services Industry.
  10. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Administrative Services Industry.
  11. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Education Industry.
  12. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Health Care Industry.
  13. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Arts and Entertainment Industries.
  14. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Accommodations and Food Services Industries.
  15. The number and Percentage of jobs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina that belong to the Other services industry.

Is it possible to have a few industry sectors dominate the employment picture in a target market like Mecklenburg County?

The short answer is yes. In the event the target market has developed a reputation over the years of being a business friendly economic area, and has given incentives to large employers of a specific industry to relocate there, then it is certainly possible that certain industries will dominate the jobs picture in that target market. A simple illustration of this is an area like Hartford, Connecticut which is home to some of the largest insurance companies in the land; another example could be the central New Jersey area well known for its concentration of pharmaceutical and medical research companies. In the event we are looking at a target market in and around the Hartford, Connecticut or Central New Jersey area, we would most certainly find that Finance and Insurance and Healthcare industries have a high percentage of of the local jobs in each area respectively.

Is is better to see a concentration of jobs in a few Industries when looking a business plan for Central Plumbing & Heating Inc.?

No. Diversification is always better. The reason for this is fairly obvious - if you have many local jobs coming from say one industry like financial services and in any given year, the stock market has a huge crash, the results could be devastating. It could result in a many firms in the target market having to let go of people at the same time and that would result in a tremendous increase in unemployment in the target market and also resulting losses to the local economy from the reduced buying power of folks who no longer have jobs.

It is much better when you find that a target market like Mecklenburg County has a slightly higher unemployment rate but has a well diversified employment picture. A well diversified employment base means that there should be many industries providing jobs and not a few. A classic example of this is the New York metropolitan area which now has a very diversified employment picture and thus if one sector of the economy is shedding jobs, another sector is always able to provide some stability and even give the workers who have lost job in one industry the chance to re-tool, educate themselves and acquire jobs in an industry that is growing.

What industries usually show up having the smallest number of jobs?

Generally speaking, we have found that Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Industry jobs tend be the smallest chunk of the total employment pie in most target markets like Mecklenburg County. There are many reasons for this - the most significant is however the fact that there aren't too many establishments in the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Industry in most of our major metropolitan areas when compared to other industries. One place where you fill find the recreation industry having a lot of jobs will be major tourist destinations. Traditional vacation destinations will have a lot of employment since that is what that particular target market is known for.

One thing to note about the Arts Industry is that it is usually very dependent on donations, grants and contributions from local, state and national governments, foundations and individuals. In the event there is a national recession underway, these contributions and grants tend to start slowing down and the patronage of the arts takes a back seat to other pressing economic priorities. In these circumstances full time and part time jobs in the Arts industry are often lost for a while.

Another industry where jobs have been gradually declining is the manufacturing industry which does not have the kind of weight it used to have in terms of providing employment. Over the years, manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas and now we see that even service sector jobs are being 'offshored' to places like India where the cost of labor is much cheaper to the United States. There is a global phenomenon where the countries with the cheapest cost of production tend to have the most advantage - thus you will see that Chinese manufacturing has taken away jobs not just from the United States and Western Europe but also from the South Asian sub-continent.

Quick Links:

  1. Go to the Corresponding Template section for this industry.
  2. Go to the Corresponding Business Plan section for this industry.

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