INTRODUCTION
Industry Aggregation allows users to combine IMPLAN Industries together by creating their own Custom Aggregation Scheme or using one of the pre-built 2-digit or 3-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes schemes.
Remember when aggregating Industries or Regions, there may be Aggregation Bias due to the loss of details.
OVERVIEW
In order to use any scheme other than the unaggregated, users must start a project with the aggregation scheme. When aggregating Industries, not only are Events created using those Industries, but the Results will also be reported in the same aggregation scheme. Basically the aggregation scheme follows the entire Project.
While the aggregation happens at the Industry level, Commodities produced by those Industries are aggregated on a 1:1 basis with them. As the Region Customization feature is disabled in the Custom or NAICS schemes, the user will not be able to alter this.
A user can identify the scheme within a Project by the tag shown on the bottom of the left panel for both the Regions and Impacts page.
NAICS QUICK AGGREGATION
IMPLAN has 528 Industries in the current U.S. Industry scheme which largely corresponds with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Please note: the 528 Industry Set is specifically for the U.S. data in the 2023 Data Year. All previous Data Years (2001-2022) will require the use of the 546 Industries Set until the release of the updated IMPLAN 528 Industry Set time series data (coming in 2025).
The most detailed NAICS Codes are six digits. The fewer the digits (i.e., 2-digit), the broader a NAICS Code becomes. IMPLAN Industries vary in the number of NAICS Codes they each include. Most IMPLAN Industries bridge to 3- to 6-digit NAICS Codes. Projects based on 2- or 3-digit NAICS Codes allow you to work with Industries that are broader than IMPLAN’s 528 Industries, as they will include just 22 (2-digit) and 87 (3-digit) Industries respectively. Learn more about the 528 Industries and how they are defined in the IMPLAN Industry Schemes article.
In IMPLAN, Projects can be created using a pre-built Industry Aggregation scheme by NAICS Sector (2-digit) or Subsector (3-digit).
USING QUICK AGGREGATION
To aggregate IMPLAN Industries into either the NAICS Sector (2-digit) or Subsector (3-digit), begin on the Projects screen. Click on New Project in the upper right corner of the screen.
Give your New Project a Title and select either the IMPLAN 3 Digit NAICS 528 or IMPLAN 2 Digit NAICS 528 Aggregation Scheme you wish to use. Next, click Create Project.
This will automatically open the Project onto the Regions screen. As the Project is now set in the selected aggregation, the user must choose a Region, then the rest of the process for running an analysis is unaffected. The only difference is that in Regions Details and on the Impacts and Results screens, the Industry codes will be those by aggregated NAICS codes, instead of the 528 IMPLAN Industries.
LOOKING AT THE DETAILS
To look at what Industries are included in the 2-digit or 3-digit NAICS aggregation schemes, follow these steps.
From the Dashboard, click Industry Aggregation located under the advanced tools widget.
This opens the Industry Aggregation page.
Here users will see all available Industry Aggregation schemes including previously-built custom Industry Aggregation schemes. Users can also search for a scheme using the search box on the top left side of the screen. The 2- and 3-digit aggregation is available for the 528, 546, and 536 U.S. Industry Sets. In addition, the International and Canadian Data Sets are also available here for users with an active subscription. Once users have identified the Industry Aggregation scheme they want to use for their project, click on the name to open a view-only page of the chosen scheme. Below is the IMPLAN 2 Digit NAICS 528 aggregation scheme.
Clicking on the arrow below the NAICS Sector (aggregated name) will open up the description to show which IMPLAN 528 Unaggregated Industries are included. Clicking on the NAICS Sector again will close the details.
To return to the Industry Aggregation dashboard, users can click Close.
CREATING A PROJECT FROM THE DASHBOARD
New Projects can also be started by clicking on the Industry Aggregation button on the dashboard. This will lead users to the Industry Aggregation page displaying all available aggregation schemes. Once the desired aggregation scheme has been chosen, click on the More Options icon. The option to Duplicate a scheme or begin a New Project will be displayed.
Click on New Project to begin a project.
A pop-up will appear displaying the selected aggregation scheme and prompting the user to name their project.
Once the project has been appropriately named, click Create Project which will lead users to the Regions page. After selecting the Region(s) for the project, click Add To Impacts.
Duplicating Schemes
Users have the option to duplicate existing schemes under the More Options icon. Clicking Duplicate will lead users to the New Industry Scheme page where there is the option to further customize the duplicated aggregation scheme. Once finished with any chosen customizations, click Complete located at bottom of the right hand side of the screen to finish the duplication process.
The user will then be prompted to enter a name for their duplicated scheme.
Once Save is clicked, users will be directed back to the Industry Aggregation dashboard where the duplicated scheme will be displayed as In Progress in yellow and in black once the process has been completed.
USER-DEFINED AGGREGATION
Users may want to look at a certain group of IMPLAN Industries aggregated in a way that doesn’t follow the standard NAICS 2- and 3-digit breakdown. This feature is available for any IMPLAN Industry sets, including the previous U.S. Industry sets, Canada Provincial, and International.
CREATING YOUR OWN SCHEME
To create a unique Industry Aggregation scheme, begin on the IMPLAN Dashboard, then click Industry Aggregation under the Advanced Tools widget.
This opens the Industry Aggregation screen. Click New Custom Scheme in the upper right.
Next, select the Industry scheme to use as the base for the custom scheme, then click Continue.
This opens the New Industry Scheme page. The box on the left side of the screen contains all unaggregated IMPLAN Industries in the chosen Industry Set. To begin the new scheme, click on + Add New Industry.
A pop-up will appear, requiring a name for the New Industry. For this example, there is a New Industry for all transportation manufacturing (IMPLAN Industries 324-347. Next, hit Continue.
The name of the New Industry now appears in the list on the right. To add the IMPLAN unaggregated Industries, click on each one from the unaggregated list so that it is highlighted in teal, or use the shift or Ctrl keys to select more than one at a time. Next, drag the highlighted set to the newly created Industry.
The Industries selected will no longer appear in the box on the left. Instead, the new Industry on the right will show the number and description of those included in each. In this example, there were 24 unaggregated Industries added to the newly created Transportation Manufacturing Industry.
Also, individual Industries will populate in the order you add them in; they will not sort numerically.
To view or edit what Industries are included, click the down arrow and the New Industry will expand to show the list.
Deletions and additions can be made here as well. Use the up arrow at the bottom of the list to collapse it.
To change the name of the New Industry, click the edit button. To delete it, click on the delete button.
To keep the remaining Industries at the unaggregated Industry level, leave them in the box on the left.
A pop-up will remind users that all Industries that are left outside of a New Industry (in the box on the left) will be added as individual Industries in the new aggregation scheme. Click Continue to accept.
A new pop-up will appear asking users to name the New Scheme.
Note, once you click on Save, your custom aggregation scheme cannot be edited. Once built, this scheme is available for use within any Projects, so give it a specific name.
IMPLAN is now building the new aggregated scheme and will show up the Industry Aggregation page as In Progress. This will take a few moments as IMPLAN is rebuilding the structure that will be used to create the Region’s Social Accounting Matrix (SAM).
Once the scheme is built, it will be selectable from the Industry Aggregation list.
For custom aggregation schemes, users also have the option to rename and delete schemes when clicking on the More Options icon.
USING A CUSTOM BUILT SCHEME
All Custom Industry Aggregation schemes are saved in IMPLAN. To use a previously-built Custom Industry Aggregation scheme, start the Project from the Industry Aggregation page or the Project screen. Create a New Project by clicking on the More Options icon on a customized scheme and selecting New Project.
Converting Existing Schemes
Users have the option to convert Custom Industry Aggregation schemes made under previous data sets to the latest 528 data set by clicking on the Convert option.
Once clicked, users will be directed to the New Industry Scheme page where users may make further customizations. Click Complete at the bottom right of the screen to begin the process of converting the scheme from a previous Industry set to the current 528 Industry set.
Users will be prompted to name their newly converted scheme.
Once saved, users will be directed back to the Industry Aggregation dashboard where the newly converted scheme will be displayed as In Progress.
Once the scheme has finished converting, it will show up as another selectable Industry Aggregation scheme option on the dashboard.
Begin a new project with the newly converted scheme by clicking on the More Options icon and selecting New Project.
Building Regions in a Custom Aggregation Scheme
Creating a new Custom Industry Aggregation Scheme provides IMPLAN with the structure that will be used to create the Region’s Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). However, each Region will have to be manually built. The Regions icon next to the name of any Selected Region in the new scheme will initially be yellow indicating it has not yet been built.
To work with multiple Regions in the new scheme, build each Region one at a time by clicking on the Regions icon to trigger the build progress to begin. This includes the US Total which would be a combination of the 50 states plus DC, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) which combine counties, and Congressional Districts (CD) that combine zip codes. Combined Regions are not selectable from the search bar while using your Custom Aggregation Scheme, instead build the US total, MSA, and Congressional District by Combining Regions from the Map or Region List.
To work with one Region in the new scheme, click Add Region. Once the Region is selected, it will start building automatically.
Analyzing in a Custom Industry Aggregation Scheme
In Projects using a Custom Industry Aggregation scheme, there are no longer unaggregated Industries when you look at Region Details. Instead, the aggregated Industries appear.
Similarly, the Results are also aggregated.
AGGREGATING RESULTS
Users that utilize the unaggregated 528 U.S. Industry Scheme for their projects have the option of viewing their IMPLAN Project Results in the 2-digit or 3-digit NAICS schemes. The Aggregation Scheme filter, located in the filter bar along the top of the Results Pages, allows users to switch between the 528 Unaggregated, 2-digit NAICS, and 3-digit NAICS Scheme to view their results. The filter is available in six of the Results Tabs: Summary, Output, Employment, Value Added, Occupation, and Environmental. Once a user selects a scheme in the filter, the selection will carry over to the other applicable Results Pages. The Aggregation Scheme filter is not available for projects that utilize the 2-digit NAICS, 3-digit NAICS, or custom aggregation schemes. The filter cannot be used to disaggregate results.
Written August 30, 2023
Updated April 4, 2024