We are responsible for helping the region to develop better access to well organised information. We do this to improve the quality of strategy and policy making so that the region can provide services based on better information.
We carry out our own research, monitor the progress that regional strategies are making, and support partners, such as the Regional Skills Partnership, in meeting their data and intelligence needs.
Recent and ongoing research projects include:
Updated 9th June 2009
We carry out analysis of changes in the West Midlands due to the economic recession. We provide partners across the region with regular updates on the recession's impact on:
We're also monitoring the latest employment and unemployment data, and we've undertaken research to identify those parts of the West Midlands that are most vulnerable to the recession.
Published 31st March 2009
This report summarises the findings of the 2008 e-business adoption survey, funded by Advantage West Midlands. Over 2,000 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were interviewed during 2008 to assess their levels of e-business adoption.
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Published 27th March 2009
We have published a comprehensive review of economic inclusion, worklessness and unemployment for the West Midlands region.
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Published 27th March 2009
We've reviewed secondary sources of data and analysis (PDF, 306KB) for information on employer skill needs and the supply of training providers, qualifications and training courses. We also reviewed existing data sources for information on their employment profile, future workforce demand and skills issues. Results from our survey of organisations (PDF, 295KB) are also available.
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Draft report published 24th December 2008
We recently started new research to try and understand the cumulative effect that priority transport schemes could potentially have on the West Midlands' economy and what influence the schemes may have in closing the region's productivity gap.
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Published 2nd December 2008
This annual report highlights changes in the West Midlands regional labour market, key policy implications and challenges. The Assessment is accompanied by six sub-regional profiles and a rural profile (PDF, 636kb).
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Published 13th October 2008
This first report from our new annual series draws out key themes emerging from the State of the Region dialogues in 2008, other research undertaken in the West Midlands, and links these themes to wider developments influencing regional policy and strategy.
We provide Excel datasets of indicators and the data can be explored in interactive maps.
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Published 7th October 2008
The West Midlands is the first English region to produce a Regional Integrated Economic Assessment.
This project aims to provide an assessment of the performance of the West Midlands' economy and of the factors which contribute to it. It also assesses the relative position of the different parts of the region.
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Updated 14th October 2008
This research project explores the issues surrounding the utilisation of graduates in the West Midlands labour market.
In October 2008, we published University Challenge: the region's knowledge economy and the demand for higher level skills (PDF, 500kb). This new report evidences the 'market failures' in the West Midlands that need to be addressed by the government's University Challenge initiative, which aims to support investment in higher education at a local level.
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