Creative Economy Component Plan

The Creative Economy in Broward County

All of the data used in the analysis is at the county level, including data used for the comparative analysis with other communities. While some data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is used, most of the data for the analysis is provided from Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. (EMSI). The QCEW database contains “employment and wage information for workers covered by State unemployment insurance (UI) laws and Federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.”² This is a very rich source of data covering about 98% of U.S. employment,³ but the other 2% will include the self-employed or those who work for very small businesses who do not have to report under UI laws. Since many who work in the creative industry are self-employed or work for small businesses who may not report, it is important to capture them in the data. The data from EMSI resolves this issue, as they estimate the number of employees and their wages not included in the QCEW and include them in their database. Thus, it is a more complete source of data.

We used several different techniques to analyze the secondary data. Each technique was chosen based on the specific insight it would provide about the creative economy in Broward County and its potential for development. The techniques used include: economic impact, economic base analysis, shift-share analysis, leakage/gap analysis, growth-share analysis, and an analysis of the labor market.

Economic base analysis: This technique identifies those industries that bring money into the local economy through their exports (the basic industries) and those industries that serve or support other industries in the region (the non-basic industries). As part of this analysis, location quotients for the industries were calculated. These indicate the concentration of the industry within the region relative to the concentration at the national level. It has long been argued in regional economic theory that the basic industries drive the development of the economy because they bring new money into the region. This will identify those industries, but new thought and research has provided evidence that the non-basic industries are also vital to the development of the economy. These non-basic industries can be especially important to the development of neighborhoods or smaller areas in need of development within the region. Thus, we also identify those key non-basic industries with an eye toward how they can be developed, as well, or used in the development of sub-regions or neighborhoods.

Shift-share analysis: This technique breaks down economic growth (most often measured by employment growth) into three components: (1) that part of regional industry growth due to growth in the national economy (i.e., national growth effect), (2) that part of regional industry growth that can be attributed to overall growth in the industry across the nation (i.e., industry mix effect), and (3) that part of growth of the industry within the industry due to the competitiveness of the industry within the region (i.e., competitiveness effect). This provides direct evidence about where the competitive advantages within the creative economy are.

Leakage/gap analysis: This part of the analysis uncovers the portions of the supply chain of the creative industries within Broward County where there exists gaps in the ability to supply the necessary good and services to support the growth of these industries. In other words, it identifies where the creative industries are buying their inputs outside of the region (i.e., where leakages in spending are occurring). These leakages are estimated using the EMSI input-output model of Broward County. Once these leakages are identified, strategies were created to plug the leakages and strengthen the development of the creative economy.

Growth-share analysis: This analysis compares the growth of the sectors of the creative economy within Broward County to other key regions as identified by the Creative Economy Task Force.

Labor market analysis: This is a thorough analysis of the labor market and occupations within the creative economy. For example, we analyzed the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of the occupations, how they match to the programs in the region providing programs to develop these competencies, and other occupations from which workers could possibly be transitioned into creative economy occupations with minimal training.

Comparative/Best practices analysis: This is complementary to the growth-share analysis. In this analysis, research was conducted to determine the best practices of creative economy development in comparative regions throughout the world. The comparative regions were determined in part by the Creative Economy Task Force, but additional regions were included as deemed appropriate.
Creative Economy Defined

The industries that compose the creative industry were determined based on previous definitions used in past reports of the industry in Broward County, definitions used in other regions, and insider knowledge of the local economy. The industries were defined using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes at the six-digit level. Specifically, the definition of the creative economy is shown in the following table.⁴