Purpose

Chamber Chairman, Evans Quinlivan, discusses the economic future of the Tennessee Valley Region with consultant Bill Fredrick.

The purpose of this task is threefold. First, it is to identify opportunities for employment of spouses of incoming BRAC personnel. Second, it is to assess the area’s economic strengths and weaknesses with an emphasis on the dynamics of the labor market. Third, it is to provide a target industry cluster analysis to complement the area’s ongoing workforce development efforts and to diversify the regional economy. Data from existing and ongoing workforce and economic development studies will be utilized to support this task.

Research

For this task, the Consulting Team will examine the full resources of the primary study area for manufacturing, R&D/technology, distribution/logistics, office operations and other economic activities. Factors we will consider include a labor market assessment and the findings from the other tasks to be completed in this assignment regarding logistics and transportation, utilities, infrastructure, real estate, education, housing, regional land use, operating environment, and visioning. Our analysis will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the three-county area on these topics.

The labor-market-assessment portion of this assignment will be especially detailed revealing the dynamics of the labor market and workforce. Our research will include the use of information from past and current workforce and economic development studies completed for the area including the recently completed Wadley-Donovan Group’s Community Assessment and cluster target reports. We will use data from these studies that were based upon primary and secondary research from surveys, private and public sector databases, reports and publications. Job opportunities matching the job skills of the spouses of BRAC personnel will be identified as part of our analysis.
An identification of the economic base of the primary study area will be included in our assessment. This economic base analysis will enable us to look closely at how the regional economy is changing and how it is likely to change due to BRAC activities.

The roster of basic industries will be analyzed to determine whether clusters of interrelated industries exist within the primary study area and how the clusters are tied into the local economy and related to BRAC induced expansions in the area. We will identify the study area’s existing and–where possible–emerging clusters. We will project the likely employment growth and decline for each cluster based on national and state forecasts. Using a proprietary database, we will identify “strategic” occupations within each industry cluster.

Upon completing the economic and labor market assessment of the primary study area, we will begin screening target industries that may or may not fall into the identified clusters, depending upon the competitive strength of those clusters regionally. The job skills of the spouses of the incoming BRAC personnel will be factored into our analysis.

Our target industry selection will involve several different approaches running concurrently. We will identify target potentials through a variety of efforts that include statistical analysis, findings from our assessment (including levels of workforce dynamics and characteristics, existing economic platforms, emerging trends, infrastructure and real estate capacities, educational infrastructure, existing business and educational resources, etc.), literature research, a review of existing studies and projects, and our significant consulting experience in economic and workforce development and corporate location-site selection consulting.

Work Products