employment impacts
I have a study that was conducted in 2008 with the Implan desktop software. I reproduced study for the same sector with spending amounts that were comparable. HOWEVER, my employment numbers are significantly lower with the 2014 data. The sector is health care. I understand the interpretation- that there must be a shifting in the production function to a less labor intensive production process, but I need to know, is this an issue that other people have run into? My numbers are down in the direct and induced employment effects are much lower but the indirect are higher.
Is there something different in the online versus desktop version?
Is there documentation or confirmation that the production functions of the impacted sectors (direct and induced) have become less labor intensive?
Are there other explanations for the employment drop that I can use to explain the decline in employment with constant expenditures over time?
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Hello Meghan, Question: Is there something different in the online versus desktop version? Answer: While there are differences in the IMPLAN Online and IMPLAN Pro systems, those differences are in functionality (you cannot alter the study area data in IMPLAN Online for example). Those differences would not be reflected in your study results as you have described them. Question: Is there documentation or confirmation that the production functions of the impacted sectors (direct and induced) have become less labor intensive? Answer: By navigating to Model Overview > Social Accounts > Balance Sheets, selecting your target sector, and selecting Commodity Demand, you can view the list of commodities required and their Gross Absorption rates (the percent of each dollar of output that goes towards the purchase of that commodity). The total Gross Absorption is the total percent of each dollar that goes towards the purchase of commodities to meet production. If you switch to the Value Added tab, the total Value Added Coefficient is the percent of each dollar that goes to Labor Income and taxes and Other Property Type Income. The total Value Added Coefficient plus the Total Gross Absorption should equal 100%. The two numbers represent that industry's ratio of Intermediate Expenditures (IE) to Value Added (VA). You can compare the 2014 data to the 2008 data to see the change in the industry's ratio. People do often see differences in employment and other values (VA, output per worker, etc) when repeating a study using a different base data year, and your initial interpretation (a switch to a less labor intensive process) is one of the reasons for this change. These changes can be noticed by going to the Model Overview > Study Area Data > Industry Summary section and noting the Output Per Worker value for the industry in the two study years. In addition, our sectoring scheme changed in 2013 to reflect the new BEA benchmark. Therefore, sectors in the 2008 data do not in every case match exactly the sectors in the 2014 data. You mention that your sector is health care, but which sector specifically are you using? It is possible that the 2008 sector was split into different sectors or merged with portions of other sectors, further altering the production function. Our [url=http://support.implan.com/index.php?view=document&alias=2-440-to-536-bridge&category_slug=536&layout=default&option=com_docman&Itemid=1764]440 to 536 Bridge[/url] sheet allows you to see the conversion from the 440 sectoring scheme used in 2008 to our 536 sectoring scheme currently being used. Regards, IMPLAN Staff
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