Texas Industry Profiles Use Scenario for:
LABOR AVAILABILITY ESTIMATOR

The supply of appropriately skilled workers to fill positions throughout its staffing pattern is critically important to any prospective firmⁱ contemplating where to locate a new operation or expand an existing one. Labor supply also must be taken into consideration by a firm if it plans to change its product- and service-mix or if it is thinking about redesigning operations to make them more productive.

Labor availability may be a make-or-break factor in a prospect's site selection. The cost of labor may be prohibitive if appropriately skilled workers are not readily available in the area surrounding the firm's proposed worksite.

• Wage expectations increase if firms compete for workers where demand exceeds supply in a region's talent pool.
  
  
• Real labor costs increase if firms must cover expenses incurred by professional, managerial and technical workers for relocating from other labor markets. Alternatively, if its workers are scattered across widely separated worksites, a firm may have to make additional investments in infrastructure and logistics to link them together.
  
  
• If forced to staff a new, expanded or retooled operation with under-skilled workers, a prospective firm will not achieve its profitability potential until those workers acquire experience and all the necessary skills to be fully proficient and optimally productive.
  
  
• In the worst-case scenario, a firm will have to forego its start-up, expansion or redesign plans altogether in any region where appropriately skilled workers are not readily available - particularly for the technology-intensive positions in its staffing pattern.
  
  

The Labor Availability Estimator module of the Texas Industry Profiles System was designed to help public officials and prospect firms determine if the region's supply of appropriately skilled labor is sufficient to fuel economic development for any given industry.

Before wading into the Labor Availability Estimator, it is important to know what the prospect's labor demands will be. We have automated a routine to estimate a prospect's staffing pattern. See the module called the Interactive Industry-Occupation Matrix. We strongly advise using exploring that module before going to the Labor Availability Estimator.

If you find yourself in the Labor Availability Estimator first, you can enter the Interactive Industry-Occupation Matrix through the "backdoor." Just enter the expected employment level for a prospect's new or expanded operation when queried on page three of the Labor Availability Estimator. This action takes you to a separate screen. The percentages shown in column three of this screen are derived from the typical staffing pattern of firms providing comparable goods and services (in this case, accounting and bookkeeping).ⁱⁱ Those percentages are applied to the estimated employment size entered by the prospect at the previous prompt. The figures in column 4 provide an educated guess about the number of workers needed for each occupation in the typical staffing pattern for general accounting offices of comparable size.

Armed with an educated guess about the prospect's labor demands, you will be able to use the primary function of the Labor Availability Estimator more effectively.

In a subsequent chapter, we will discuss a regional approach to economic development that emphasizes cooperation rather than competition among neighboring cities or counties for win/ win strategies.The first thing planners, public officials and prospective firms must understand about labor availability is that it has a geographic component. The geographic component may be defined politically or empirically. Public officials, having a primary obligation to serve the voters who elected them to office, tend to look at labor availability within the political boundaries of their constituency; i.e., the city, municipality or county where they serve. Economists, however, having no particular constituency to serve, identify labor markets empirically according to the geographic limits of commuting patterns and the flow of business-to-business transactions. The Labor Availability Estimator uses empirically defined geographic areas to organize data on the supply of appropriately skilled workers.

We primarily use the Local Workforce Development Board (LWDB) regions' boundariesⁱⁱⁱ in defining labor markets within Texas. In some densely populated areas, the LWDB regions are comprised of a single county within a larger labor market (e.g., Dallas, Tarrant, Travis and Cameron Counties). In those cases, we allow the user to see the data displayed for the respective LWDBs by themselves or as part of a larger labor market such as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). Users also can combine a single county LWDB with adjacent LWDBs: Travis County with the Capital Area region; Dallas and Tarrant Counties with the North Central region; and Cameron County with the Lower Rio Grande region.

To get into the Labor Availability Estimator, the user must identify the region where the prospect firm is thinking about opening or expanding its operations. To select a region, the user can either choose by region name or by point-and-click method from a pop-up map that displays the regions' boundaries.

You also must select the industry that best fits or describes the prospect firm based on what kinds of goods or services it produces. To select an industry, you can choose from a list of titles from the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). You also may type in key words to describe an industry to find a best-fitting list of official titles that describe the prospect's goods and services.

Once you get into the Labor Availability Estimator, the header at the top of the page reminds you of the industry you selected (by its NAICS title and reference number) and the region where the prospect is thinking about opening or expanding operations.

Columns one, two and three break down the occupational composition of the staffing pattern for firms that produce comparable goods or services. A prospect firm can use this information in the planning stage to form an educated guess about the number and type of workers it will have to hire to staff a new or expanded operation. Although no two firms will staff comparable operations alike, the composite profile provides a point of departure for planning.

Column one contains the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code for each grouped skill set commonly found in the staffing pattern of the prospective firm's industry type based on the goods or services it produces.


The O*NET is a structured database that ties occupations by their duties and tasks and requisite KSAs to the SOC taxonomy.Column two contains the official titles (according to the SOC taxonomy) of occupations in the typical industrial staffing pattern for firms that produce the same goods and services as the prospect. Some prospects might not use SOC titles to name occupations in their staffing patterns.^iv Crosswalks^v have been developed to translate titles from other occupational taxonomies into their SOC equivalents. Utilities built around the O*NET database can help translate emerging^vi occupational titles, workers compensation codes, informal industry vernacular and jargon, organized labor designations or firm-specific titles into official SOC titles by comparing duties, tasks and requisite knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs).


Columns four through seven of the Labor Availability Estimator provide data on the number of persons in various viable talent pools from which a prospect firm might recruit workers for specific occupations in the anticipated staffing pattern of its proposed new, expanded or retooled operations.

Incumbent occupational workers may be employed in the same industry as the prospect firm or in an industry that produces other kinds of goods and services e.g. secretaries are found in many different industries.Each row in column four shows the number of persons employed in the region for the occupation identified in column 2 (as of 2000).^vii This information is provided because workers currently employed in identical occupations in the region represent a viable talent pool for prospect firms seeking to locate, expand or retool operations in the same region.

• Those workers already reside in or within likely commuting distance to the region and will not have to relocate.
  
  
• They will have a modicum of on-the-job experience and practical know-how in addition to the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) to be fully proficient and optimally productive very soon after being hired by the incoming or expanding prospect firm.
  
  

Be advised, however, that a prospect planning to locate, expand or retool its operations in a region likely will have to pay prevailing occupational wages or better to lure (or "poach") incumbent occupational workers from their current employers. To overcome incumbent worker loyalty to their current employers, an incoming or expanding prospect may have to provide signing bonuses, premium wages or better benefit packages than other firms long established in the region.



The longer the elapsed time since the prospect developed its location or expansion strategy, the more important it is to rerun the Labor Availability Estimator when the prospect enters its hiring phase.Note also that the employment data in column 4 of the Labor Availability Estimator are not for the current year.^viii By the time a prospect firm actually starts hiring, some incumbent workers represented in these data during the planning phase will have left the occupational employment depicted in one of the table's rows (through death, retirement, relocation outside the region, lay-off, termination or career change). Planners are strongly advised to consult with a prospect at several milestones in the process to fine-tune labor availability estimates and recalculate the wages the firm probably will have to offer in order to recruit appropriately skilled workers.

Column five provides data on the number of applicants in the region currently receiving job search assistance and/or Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits through the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).^ix Each row in column 5 shows the number of such applicants whose last employment was in the occupation described in column 2. This is an attractive and viable talent pool.

• Individuals receiving UI benefits already reside in the region. Plus, UI recipients must be ready and available for work as a condition of receiving benefits.
  
  
• By virtue of their most recent occupational employment, they are likely to have the KSAs, formal credentials (where necessary), and adequate work histories to make them candidates for reemployment by a prospect locating, expanding or retooling its operations in the region - especially if they were employed previously in the same industry as the prospect firm.
  
  
• They are more likely than incumbent workers to be willing to accept a wage at or below prevailing wages to secure employment.
  
  

Depending on the working environment where they were last employed, the KSAs of some of the applicants, including those individuals currently receiving UI benefits may be somewhat obsolete. Depending on the duration of unemployment, some individuals may have lost a degree of proficiency in their occupational KSAs. Business service representatives under contract to the region's workforce investment board may be able to help prospect firms devise and fund skill upgrade training to move individuals off the UI or applicant rolls and into optimally productive employment.

Moreover, depending on the duration of their unemployment and given the 80 percent wage-replacement rule, applicants currently receiving UI benefits may: a) be willing to return to work for less than they previously earned; and b) qualify for publicly-funded skill upgrade training or additional occupational training.


The column labeled "Applicants" is primarily persons in the region who have applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI) and/or other services through the Texas Workforce Commission. The counts are based on the applicant's occupation at last employment and cover the previous twelve months (future updates will include the most recent six month period). We suspect that as the Texas economy rebounds through the balance of the decade, the size of the labor pool of TWC applicants under most specific occupational titles will decrease between the time that a prospect plans the location, expansion or retooling of its operations and its implementation and hiring phases.The chief limitation of data in column 5 is that by the time a prospect moves from planning to implementation, the number of applicants under any occupational title may change dramatically. Some drawing benefits while a prospect is in the planning stage may have found new employment by the time that firm moves into its implementation stage and starts recruiting workers. Some, perhaps having exhausted their UI benefits, may have exited the labor market through retirement. Some may have relocated in another labor market. Others simply may have become discouraged workers and ceased looking for employment. Conversely, as a prospect moves from the planning stage to implementation and the hiring phase, additional persons under any given occupational title may be seeking work through the TWC because of recent layoffs and closures among other businesses. It is true that "stock" or calendar snapshot estimates of employment service applicants do not communicate weekly or monthly "flows" of the same individuals in and out of the labor pool. However, the figures provided offer a reasonable view of the likely magnitude of unemployed workers receiving services or UI benefit payments through the TWC and thus are already validated as available for work.

Column six of the Labor Availability Estimator provides data^x on recent graduates of education and training programs that impart the KSAs required for occupational employment in the anticipated staffing pattern of prospects planning to locate, expand or retool their operations in the region.

The data are based on the number of persons exiting community colleges and private/proprietary schools who have received one-year certificates, associate decrees, advanced associate degrees, or certificates of marketable skills after having completed applicable requirements in occupationally-specific majors whose curriculum is directly or closely aligned with employer-specified hiring criteria. In addition, all graduates from universities located in the region will be designated as available in the region for occupational employment based on the training-relatedness of their majors.

Graduates from Texas colleges and universities located outside the region also will be designated as available for occupational employment in the region based on the training-relatedness of their majors if:

• the college or university's characteristics (e.g., enrollment size, availability of on-campus dormitories, or actual incoming student demographics) suggest that it recruits a significant portion of its student body outside the region in which it is located;^xi and
  
  
• its curriculum's characteristics indicate that it educates and trains students for labor markets beyond the region in which it is located.
  
  

The degree of training-relatedness between various majors and the occupations appearing column 2 of the Labor Availability Estimator is based ratings in the U.S. Department of Education's CIP-to-SOC crosswalk that was developed jointly by educators and employers.^xii

For example, by applying these decision rules for an accounting and bookkeeping service considering opening an office in the Gulf Coast region, we get the following results:

• Associate and advanced associate degree-holders of the community colleges (e.g., San Jacinto College) and baccalaureate degree-holders form universities (e.g., Texas Southern) in the region with majors in Accounting are considered part of the prospect's potential labor supply for accountants and auditors.
  
  
• Baccalaureate degree-holders from larger colleges and universities outside the region (even those as far away as the University of Texas - El Paso or West Texas A&M) with degrees in Accounting are considered part of the potential labor supply for accountants and auditors.
  
  
• Baccalaureate degree-holders in Taxation from the University of Texas - San Antonio and the University of Texas - Arlington also are considered part of the labor supply in the region because: a) Taxation, as a field of study, is counted in the CIP-to-SOC crosswalk as training closely related to the KSA requirements of accountants and auditors; and b) enrollments at both of those University of Texas campuses exceed 5,000.
  
  

On the other hand, note that, although students can graduate with degrees in Accounting from St. Edwards University, they are not considered part of the potential labor supply for accountants and auditors in the Gulf Coast region. St. Edwards is located well outside of the Gulf Coast Region (in Austin) and its total enrollment (4,444) is less than 5,000.

Graduates whose data are represented in column six comprise a viable and attractive talent pool for occupational employment.

• They either reside in or, based on historic post-training migration patterns, may make themselves available for work in the region.
  
  
• The credentials they have earned signify that they have the requisite KSAs for occupational employment.
  
  

Prospect firms coming into a region from other states should be advised that some Texas community colleges provide guaranteed diplomas. That is, the community college will certify that its diploma-earners in occupationally-specific programs of study have demonstrated KSAs to a degree of proficiency specified by employers as necessary for entry-level occupational employment.


There are trade-offs in the occupational employment of recent graduates of directly- and closely-related education and training programs. On one hand, they may not be as productive and proficient as senior incumbent occupational workers. They may lack the practical work experience or industry-specific know-how that only can be acquired on the job. They may lack exemplary work habits and "soft skills" (e.g., the ability and cultural sensitivity to work with a diverse team) that generally improve as individuals mature.

On the other hand, insofar as they are apt to have little or no occupationally-specific work experience, recent graduates of directly- and closely-related education and training programs likely can be recruited for less than the prevailing wage in the industry for comparable occupational employment in a comparable industry. That is, an entry-level occupational wage typically is less than the prevailing regional occupational wage. The latter is the average within the industry for all of a region's workers in an occupation --- including high-wage senior incumbent workers.

The data in column 6 provide only an ESTIMATE based on assumptions about the relationship between the credentialing standards of occupationally-specific education and training program and the hiring requirements for occupational employment among Texas firms.^xiii Clearly, the numbers in column 6 are high. Not all recent exiters of training-related programs at community colleges, four year colleges or universities within the region will stay in the area to work after graduation. Note especially that graduates of universities within the region are counted as available for work in other regions of the state if the school's total enrollment is greater than 5,000.

Clearly the odds of recruiting recent graduates improve with the proximity of the education and training institution to the prospect's site selection.For example, if a planner is working with a prospect firm in accounting and bookkeeping services in the Gulf Coast region, all of the graduates from the University of Houston with degrees in Accounting will be counted in column 6, row one of the Labor Availability Estimator. A planner working with a comparable prospect in El Paso will also find those same UH graduates counted as available for work as accountants and auditors in the Upper Rio Grande region. On the other hand, all accounting graduates of the University of Texas at El Paso would be considered available for employment as accountants and auditors in the Gulf Coast region.

Note, too that graduates in some majors will be counted as available for employment in more than one occupation in the prospect industry's typical staffing pattern. For example, the talent pool of recent graduates potentially available to work in the region as Tax Preparers (SOC 43-3031) may well overlap the talent pool of recent graduates available to work as Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks (SOC 13-2080).

An economic development specialist or business services representative should be able to supply local wisdom to firms about their prospects for recruiting recent graduates of post-secondary education and training institutions. The placement officers of the educational institutions represented on the local WIB should be consulted about the migration patterns (within the region and beyond its boundaries) of its recent graduates. The human resource managers of private sector firms in industries identical or similar to the prospect's industry, should be consulted about the geographic scope of their recruitment of recent postsecondary graduates.

Column 7 provides estimated data on the number of persons in the region currently working in occupations very similar to the one identified in column two of each respective row.^xiv This source of labor supply is often overlooked and yet frequently constitutes the largest single pool of potential workers. These data are provided because individuals currently working in the region at very similar occupations are likely to have a sufficiency of transferable skills to qualify for occupational openings listed in column 2. In addition to having a sufficiency of transferable skills, individuals included for data in column 7 represent a viable talent pool because they reside in the region.

We want to make it clear that a new or expanding firm will not be attractive to all incumbent workers in the region employed in very similar occupations. Incumbent workers likely will make mental calculations about the trade-offs between remaining in their present jobs versus hiring on with a new or expanding firm in the region.

The difference between the data entry in column 7 and the real talent pool for any given occupation will depend in part on where a firm plans to locate its new or expanded operations within the region. For example, an incumbent worker might change jobs if the incoming or expanding firm's operations are closer to his/her place of residence, children's school or other geographic marker of family significance. On the other hand, they will be unlikely to make a lateral career move if it necessitates a significant increase in commuting time and travel. The actual size of this talent pool, therefore, likely will be smaller than the estimated data depicted in column 7 of any row. However, we lack data on where incumbent workers in particular occupations reside and on where prospects plan to locate new or expanded operations within the region. It is not possible to capture each of these worker-specific decision rules.


The actual number of incumbent workers in the region employed in very similar occupations and likely targets of recruitment will depend on average employment and earnings trends in the industry where they currently work, their present employers' growth or contraction plans, and their personal assessments of their prospects for advancing along firm-specific or industry-specific career ladders and prospects for earnings growth with their current employer. Incumbent workers are not likely to change jobs if they believe they have a reasonable chance of career advancement and/or wage growth with their present employer. If a firm is looking to open or expand operations in the region, it may well offer above average wage growth potential and career advancement opportunities to its new-hires. Growth potential, however, is relative. It varies from industry-to-industry, firm-to-firm and individual-to-individual.

Obviously, the wages offered will have the most significant effect on a prospect firm's ability to recruit incumbent workers employed elsewhere in the region at very similar occupations. In determine which very similar occupations to include in each row of column 7, we assume that the prospect intends to pay current regional prevailing wages^xv for the occupation listed in column 2. If the prevailing regional wage for a closely related occupation was more than 5 percent higher than the prevailing regional wage for the occupation identified in column 2, then incumbent workers in the region employed in that occupation were deemed unavailable for recruitment by the prospect firm.

Our decision rule for excluding such incumbent workers from the figures in column 7 is based on the assumption that workers are not likely to take an immediate significant pay cut in making a career change even if in the long run such a move improved their career advancement prospects and potential for long term earnings growth.

• For example, a payroll clerk working in an industry with little growth or decay in a region (e.g., a retail grocery chain) or a declining industry (e.g., clothing and apparel manufacturing) might take a modest pay cut to accept work as an accountants receivable clerk with a new or expanding firm in an industry poised for rapid take-off (e.g., a biotech firm that just patented a new prosthetic device).
  
  
• On the other hand, an insurance billing clerk employed in an industry (like health care) that already offers above average wages is not likely to seek employment as an accounts receivable clerk at the prevailing regional wage in a start-up biotech firm.
  
  

We fully understand that a prospect's plans for compensating its new hires can change as it weighs site-selection alternatives. Those plans also may have to be adjusted according to changes in the macroeconomic climate, particularly at the regional level, that occur when the prospect moves from the planning to implementation stage for opening or expanding its operations at a site already selected.

• For example, if a region's labor market appears to be tight, a prospect firm might decide to offer 110 percent of prevailing regional occupational wages in order to recruit appropriately skilled workers for key positions in the staffing pattern it anticipates for its new, expanded or retooled operations. Using 5 percent as the wage premium required to recruit incumbent workers in the region from very similar occupations, the threshold for excluding various occupational workers from the entries in column 7 would be higher. Only those in very similar occupations paying 115 per cent or more than the prevailing regional wage for the occupation identified in column 2 of the row would be excluded from the estimated count in column 7.
  
  
• On the other hand, a firm with plans to locate or expand operations in a region might contemplate offering to compensate new hires somewhat below prevailing regional occupational wages. That would likely eliminate a region's incumbent workers in more of the very similar occupations as potential recruits. Under conditions where a region seems to have a surplus of qualified workers for key positions in its anticipated staffing pattern, an incoming or expanding firm's critical staffing pattern needs may find that the smaller talent pool in the lower wage scenario would still be sufficient to meet its needs.
  
  

To help prospects understand how the wages they intend to offer will impact their potential to recruit incumbent workers from the region employed in very similar occupations, you can click on an entry in column 7 of the Labor Availability Estimator.

When you do that a new screen is displayed. The header at the top of the new screen reminds you what occupation in the prospect's likely staffing pattern you are considering when looking for incumbent workers in region employed in very similar occupations. The header also reminds you which region's employment data are being used to construct the table.

Columns 1 and 2 provide the SOC codes and official titles of the very similar occupations. Columns 3 through 9 provide information about anticipated employment demand for each occupation to the year 2010 (apart from the additional demands that might occur if the prospects does locate or expand operations in the region).

The last column depicts each occupation's prevailing regional occupational wage. Rows are color coded to show how the prevailing regional occupational wages of the very similar occupation compares to that in the targeted occupation displayed in column 2 of the same row. (The symbols >, = and < also are provided on the right margin of the table to denote the wage comparisons for users without color monitors.) If it intends to pay something other than the prevailing regional occupational wage for the target occupation, the prospect firm can look act actual prevailing regional wages for the very similar occupations to determine which exceed, match or fall below the 5 percent threshold.

Column 8 simply sums, row by row, the labor availability data in columns 4 through 7. The sum in column 8 obviously compounds all of the assumption-based errors made in the prior columns. Clearly, an Accounting and Bookkeeping firm moving into the Gulf Coast Region will not get 61,540 applicants if it advertises openings for 28 accountants and auditors nor will it get 414,810 applicants if it advertises 1 opening for a word-processing typist. What is important to note is the order of magnitude in ratio between a prospect's labor demand in any occupation in column 3 and the region's potential pool of qualified labor in column 8. Divide the figure in column 8 of the Labor Availability Estimator by the figure you obtained in column 4 of the Interactive Industry-Occupation Matrix for the same occupation. By computing ratio for the various occupations in its anticipated staffing pattern, an accounting and bookkeeping firm, for example, can see that it will have an easier time finding word processing typists than accountants and auditors in the Gulf Coast region. While having an adequate recruitment pool of word processing typists willing to work at the prevailing regional wage, the prospect may have to pay premium wages to widen the talent pool for workers qualified for jobs as accountants and auditors.

If its site selection options are in more than one region, a prospect can compare the estimated labor availability for each occupation in the two regions. For example, assume an accounting and bookkeeping firm is considering three sites: Houston, Dallas and Corpus Christi (Costal Bend region). How does the estimated labor availability in the three regions compare for two occupations in the typical industrial staffing pattern?



Obviously, the more populous the region, the larger the likely talent pool for any given occupation --- unless the data show a higher than average concentration of occupational workers in a region (see Occupational Coefficients of Specialization in Texas Industry Profiles). That is, you are more likely to find certified scuba divers in the Coastal Bend (around Corpus Christi) than in an inland region of comparable population such as the Upper Rio Grande. On the other hand, an accounting and bookkeeping firm considering Houston and Corpus for satellite office would likely plan a smaller office for the latter. Again, the critical comparison is the figure in column 8 of the Labor Availability Estimator contrasted to the figure for the same occupation that the prospect obtained in column 4 when running the Interactive Industry-Occupation Matrix.

The Labor Availability Estimator also can help a prospect put together a recruiting plan to fill key positions in its staffing pattern when it opens or expands its facilities in a region. If, coming into Dallas, an accounting and bookkeeping firm thinks that the estimated supply of accountants and auditors in Dallas County (which comprises its own workforce region) is too small, it may want to broaden its search.

ENDNOTES

ⁱThis field guide to economic development was written as a companion to the Texas Industry Profiles system developed by the Labor Market and Career Information unit of the Texas Workforce Commission. It assumes that the primary users of Texas Industry Profiles will be strategic planners, economic development specialists or business services representatives employed at the substate level by Local Workforce Development Boards or their Business Services contractors, Councils of Government, municipalities or city governments, county governments, or economic development entities. In the typical planning scenario, the user is working with a particular firm may want to locate in the region or expand already existing operations. Herein, the firm being recruited or provided business services is called the "prospect" or "prospective firm." The prospect may be a firm that has show genuine in interest locating or expanding its operations in the region. The prospect also could be a hypothetical one in a heuristic or planning exercise to help officials at the regional level develop more effective economic development strategies.

ⁱⁱOur source for the percentages in the staffing pattern breakdown in column three of the Labor Availability Estimator is the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, operated by the LMCI department of TWC.

ⁱⁱⁱBy and large the Workforce Investment Board regions constitute separate labor markets. Their boundaries general coincide with those of the regional Councils of Government that coordinate policies other than workforce development (such as transportation and environmental protection) and the Private Industry Council Service Delivery Areas (SDAs) that predated passage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1996. Under Job Training Partnership Act (which authorized creation of the SDAs) and the WIA, chief local elected officials in an area joined together to request authorization to form a planning board from the Governor's Office through a state-level oversight entity. Approval from the Governor's office was contingent upon demonstration by the chide elected officials that their area had a sufficient population, appropriate commuting patterns and within-region business-to-business transactions to constitute a labor market. We use the WIB regions not only because they have been empirically defined in this manner but also because most federal and state funds for workforce and economic development are now allocated for programs and initiatives through the WIBs.

^ivTitles used by a specific prospect to describe occupations in its staffing pattern may be based on: taxon-omies that preceded the SOC; workman's compensation codes; informal industry vernacular or jargon; occupational designations used by organized labor in a unionized environment; or a firm-specific (in-house/internal career ladder) taxonomy.

^vStandard crosswalks have been developed to translate titles from commonly used older taxonomies such as the Occupational Employment Statistic (OES) and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). There also is a crosswalk that translates Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) titles used by all the Armed Forces and some defense contractors into their civilian equivalents in the SOC.

^viA sound method for assessing labor demands in emerging occupations is available from the Labor Market and Career Information Division (LMCI) of TWC at www.cdr.state.tx.us/emerging. Assistance may be obtained from the LMCI unit's specialists in the analysis of emerging occupations. Inquiries about emerging occupations can be emailed to emerging.questions@cdr.state.tx.us.

^viiData on occupational employment in the region as of 2000 came from the occupational projections program produced by the LMCI department o the TWC.

^viiiEvery two years the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) generates national industry and occupational projections for ten-year projection periods. These same numbers are generated for Texas and local Boards by the LMCI department of the TWC. Since the projections process is very elaborate, expensive and the fact that occupational employment at the state and regional level is estimated and not counted, this event occurs only every two years. As a result, the base period for each projections cycle is viewed as "current employment". As of March 2004, the most recent base period occupational employment estimate was 2000. With the release of new projections for Texas in approximately October 2004, the base period will be updated to 2002. Thus, due to the estimating methodology used, the notion of current employment will always be synonymous with the base period of the BLS occupational projections.

^ix>Data on the number of applicants by occupational title who are receiving UI benefits come from the Work In Texas automated labor exchange system operated by the TWC.

^xData sources

• Exiters from community colleges in the region by institution, major and graduation status from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
  
  
• Exiters from all public universities across the state by institution, major and graduation status from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
  
  
• Exiters from all private/proprietary schools in the region by institution, major and graduation status = Proprietary School Division of the Texas Workforce Commission.
  
  

^xiDecision rules for including individuals with appropriate majors in a region's labor supply even if they graduate from a college or university outside the region required the school to have a total enrollment greater than 5,000 and a wide- ranging curriculum. The graduates of colleges and universities with enrollments of less than 5,000 also are defined as available for employment in every workforce region in the state if the curriculum is highly specialized (e.g., a chiropractic college) in a field related to the occupation appearing in column two of the Labor Availability Estimator.

^xiiCIP stands for the Classification of Instructional Programs, a hierarchical taxonomy devised by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to organize specific courses by majors or disciplines within broader divisions that typically are used in administering education and training institutions. The crosswalk was developed jointly by educators and employers. Scores reflecting the degree of fit are assigned to every paired combination of CIP fields of study and occupations in the SOC taxonomy based on the learning objectives of the former and the KSA-based hiring requirements of the later.

^xiiiEmployer participation, for example, in occupationally-specific curriculum development is required by both the THECB and is generally practiced as a good business model among for-profit private proprietary schools. Employer collaboration on criteria used by education and training providers to issue various credentials also is promoted widely as a best practice. However, as a practical matter, employer participation in curriculum design and collaboration on credentialing standards varies from one region to another, from institution to institution, and across occupationally-specific areas of education and training. Similarly, it would be more accurate to use the results of historic post-graduation migration studies than to rely on the simple decision rules herein for determining which education and training institutions' graduates are available for work in a region. Even then, estimated availability of graduates in a region may be off target if historic post-education migration patterns are skewed for prior cohorts of university graduates and straight-line extrapolations are not adjusted for current recruitment drives that may be regionally based.

^xivCorrespondence in requisite KSAs is used to judge the degree of similarity between all occupations counted in the data entry in column 7 and the entry occupation in column 2 of the same row. Information in the O*NET database was used to determine the degree of similarity between occupations. The minimum KSA requirements for employment in the occupation listed in column 2 were compared to the minimum KSA requirements for all other occupations. If the KSA deployment of any given occupation could be categorized as excellent (generally within one degree of fit from target KSA score), then the occupation was defined as having a sufficiency of transferable skills to be considered for potential inclusion of its incumbent workers in the same row of column 7.

^xvPrevailing wage data is generated from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey operated by the LMCI department of the Texas Workforce Commission.