West Virginia is pioneering innovative uses of United States Census Bureau data to drive economic development, bureau Director Louis Kincannon said Thursday.

Kincannon traveled to Morgantown to recognize novel uses of Census Bureau data, particularly of the bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics dataset.

"The LEHD is an important advance in the nation's statistical system," Kincannon explained. "For the first time, the federal government is working with state government to deliver local labor force information and economic indicators."

To create the LEHD, the Census Bureau takes labor force data that states are already collecting for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and merges that with its own household demographic data.

What results, Kincannon said, is key labor market data on hiring, job gains and losses, turnover, earnings over time and commuting patterns, all of which may be broken down by age, gender, industry and county.

How much are new hires in a region getting paid? Kincannon asked as a sample of the power of the LEHD. How does the turnover rate for firms in a given industry compare to the turnover in a specific location?

"We all have anecdotal knowledge in our local areas about this," he said. "But having quantifiable information is very useful for precise research, for better planning and for persuasive arguments about allocating resources."

The military base realignments and closures going on now, he said, are an example of a situation the LEHD can help local communities with.

"Given a profile of the skills of base workers," he said, "you can use LEHD local workforce and top industries data to illustrate what types of industries would be a good fit for these workers--and so help ease their transition."

The presentation highlighted two problems addressed through the use of census data in West Virginia: one in the southeastern counties and one in the Wheeling area.

Looking for Nurses

Local hospitals were complaining of a nursing shortage in 2000, Bill Loope explained. Loope is executive director of the West Virginia Workforce Investment Board's Region 1, which represents 11 southeastern counties.

The WIB convened a series of meetings to learn what 16 hospitals in the region knew and what they needed, he said. Using census labor market data, the board was able to confirm or correct the hospitals' impressions.

Having hard data enabled them to bring not only the health-care providers but also educational institutions into alignment to coordinate training with needs, Loope said.

Now, "...instead of a nursing shortage, we predict a slight surplus on the horizon for the next couple of years," stated February 2005 document from the board.

Loope credits the data for informing effective decision making.

"We do not fund things that make no sense for our region," Loope said. "We've been able to do that because we've always had good data."

Kincannon lauded the approach. "This is a good example of how our statistics have been reformulated to the use of local areas," he said.

Attracting New Businesses

In the Wheeling region, Census Bureau LEHD data are being used to attract businesses.

The Regional Economic Development Partnership for Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties is one of the biggest development groups in the state.

Joshua Jefferson, project coordinator for the partnership, said he relies heavily on census labor market data in a 2004 Marshall County Region Economic Development and Strategic Planning Study. The study was produced by the Bureau of Business and Economics Research at West Virginia University's College of Business and Economics.

When companies consider locating in an area, Jefferson said, demographic information is the first thing they ask for. Having the labor market data in the Marshall County region study at his fingertips has been invaluable.

"We're in the running for projects now in Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties that are totaling multi-millions of dollars," he said. "We utilize that (data) and we move ground with it and we provide jobs and we increase tax revenue."

Kincannon presented awards to Loope and Jefferson and to George Hammond of the BBER for their uses of census data to assist local decision making.