IMPLAN Blog

2018 is over.

2019 is here.

Honestly, where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were conversing about the 2016 IMPLAN Data Release Notes, discovering why robots aren’t actually killing jobs, and surviving the hurricanes by exploring the history of hurricanes in North Carolina.

Seriously, it has been a year to remember here at IMPLAN. These past 12 months we experienced growth internally and externally and found inspiration in every direction we looked. In that time we have also published more than 30 articles on our site, with a few standing apart from the others.

Which blogs stood apart from the others? The ones people felt inspired and intrigued by the most? Here are the 5 most popular blog posts of 2018 on the IMPLAN Blog:

We talk a lot about economic impact analysis here but the question of economic impact is only one part of a multifaceted reality.

Researchers at the Michigan Department of Transportation had a different type of question. They didn’t want to just know about the jobs that could be created from constructing trails. They didn’t want to just know about tourism and retail spending that comes when people ride bikes or walk on those trails.

Data season has finally come to a close which means that the latest IMPLAN Data Year is now available! Here's what's new in this data release:

Demand for jet engines is taking off. Domestic airlines have relied on up-fitting or remodeling equipment originally constructed in the 1970s or later. This generation of equipment is slowly approaching its expiry. And internationally, travel tastes have changed. Airlines are one-upping each other to offer the most top-of-the-line luxury flights which are incorporating features including personal compartments with beds, full-service bars, and incredible food options.

Amazon recently announced that it would be raising the minimum wage paid to workers to $15 per hour (minimum wage standards sometimes vary by state and city; the current federal minimum pay is $7.25). According to the company’s blog, the wage increase will go into effect on 1 November, will be extended to associates employed by temp agencies, and is anticipated to affect the paychecks of more than 250,000 Amazon employees, as well as more than 100,000 seasonal holiday employees. Workers at Amazon subsidiaries (including Whole Foods) will also benefit from the parent company’s new initiative to “lead on pay.”

Being equipped with the proper data as well as the right analysis tools can help you make better and more informed business decisions. IMPLAN provides excellent data that can supplement your analyses. Our latest release of the Occupational Data Matrices joins the ranks of those supplemental data sets. This data set provides information on employment and compensation, which might just make determining wages and allocating scarce resources a less arduous task.

Back in April, we were storm-chasing Tornados and growing wary of the fast-approaching prediction of an active 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Today we are living out this prediction, as Hurricane Florence, a dangerous category 4, is barreling towards our East Coast.

IMPLAN’s HQ is nestled in the bucolic margins of Lake Norman and a mere stone’s throw from Charlotte’s city center—751 feet above sea level. We’ve all been hitting the refresh buttons on our screens to catch every change to the weather models as hurricane Florence slowly creeps toward our coast from seas which seem to have made it a banner week for tropical storms.

Economic impact analysis is, at the end of the day, only a fraction of the work necessary for understanding and communicating the significance of an economic event (whether business- or policy-related) to the people who might be most affected by those economic changes. The remaining work related to getting the word out happens in press conferences, on phone calls, and online. Here’s our best advice on how to recruit the media’s help in getting all that work done—excerpted from one of our recent white papers, Creating a Compelling Economic Impact Report.

Economists use the name “IMPLAN” to refer to both the company’s software and data. The impact analysis data takes the software and company as its namesake (distinct from IMPLAN’s CEW, Occupational Employment and Compensation Matrices, and other data products) mainly because, though fastidiously true to its sources, the data in form and function is ultimately unique to the economic impact modeling world.