This section of our resource guide for preparing Local Economic Assessments (LEA) contains links to information about people and communities.
The demographic and skills profile of the local area, and how this is projected to change, has a major influence on the functioning of the local and the wider economy. Identifying future mismatches between the needs of your local and neighbouring economies, and what your resident population can offer, can inform targeting of resources and policy to address those gaps and address economic exclusion.
Areas the Local Economic Assessment can usefully provide intelligence about include:
- The potential economic impacts of demographic trends in the coming decades.
- How and where your resident population significantly contribute to other economies and where residents of other areas significantly contribute to your area's economy.
- The expected scale and nature (ie sector, occupation) of future local job opportunities, including those generated by replacement demand.
- How well the skills profile of your area matches current and expected future needs locally and in neighbouring areas — including needs generated by labour market churn and via projected growth sectors — and where significant mismatches exist.
- Where your area has significant levels of worklessness, how these relate to other indicators of deprivation and what the key barriers to economic activity are in the area for individuals. Includes the extent to which the area suffers issues of under-employment — part-time or seasonal working due to lack of full time oportunities.
- What local businesses consider to be key current and future skills needs.
To address these questions, these data sources can be used to carry out detailed local and comparative analysis. There's also a wide range of analysis covering the West Midlands, local authorities and local areas. Some of this can be used as templates for other local research. We've also collated some guidance as well as some other resources showing a few examples of work done elsewhere.
Browse the resources using these links:
We have several ongoing workstreams which can help inform this LEA theme.
We carry out annual skills assessments, focusing on different themes each year. The 2009 Skills Assessment includes profiles and datasets for groups of local authorities. Similar earlier assessments allow analysis of changing patterns. We've also carried out detailed analysis of post-recession scenarios in the West Midlands.
We've produced an economic inclusion annual report covering emerging and ongoing issues, as well as a series of spotlight reports addressing different themes.
We've also published innovative research on the multiple risk factors affecting a person's chances of being out of work, as part of ongoing research into causes and dynamics of worklessness.
We hope you find this resource guide useful. You can be notified when new resources are added via this RSS feed or email alert.
If you have resources you think others would find useful, please submit them to our Resource Catalogue (requires login) or contact stephen.howarth@wmro.org.