IMPLAN Blog

After more than a year since Amazon’s deadline for RFP submissions, over 200 subsequent submissions, and a culling of 20 possible locations earlier this spring, we’ve finally (almost) got our answer—an HQ2 with one foot in Crystal City, Virginia and another in Queens, New York. And mere hours after the news broke, markets are already reacting in some rather severe (and not altogether unexpected) ways.

Late in the summer of 1949, Wassily Leontief fed the 25-ton computer the last of the stiff paper punched with precisely-placed holes. The machine at Harvard University now had hundreds of thousands of data points about the United States economy.

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.”

Back in August we published a blog post to address one of the most common questions asked of us, “What Is IMPLAN?” One of the reasons this question remains a complicated one to answer is that economic impact analysis benefits such a diverse set of users (from academia, to federal government, to real estate and everything in between). To elaborate beyond what IMPLAN is and illustrate what it does, let’s take a look at some of our common user types and a high-level example of how each of them applies the power of economic impact analysis in their spheres of study or in their industry.

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.

Taxes and tariffs have resurfaced in the last few months and are at the forefront of the nation’s attention. Rumors of trade wars and threats of economic sanctions fly around the globe faster than Garfield can devour a lasagna. Historically, governments have used taxes and tariffs to stimulate or throttle markets to achieve a desired economic state of balance.

The Value of Storytelling in Business

If you have kids or if you ever were a child (so everyone), you inherently understand the value of storytelling. Storytelling has been used as a very effective learning device for years. From teaching children social and language skills to formal education for adults, storytelling is used as a means to communicate all ranges of ideas.

Newsprint, unlike your average algebra quiz, leaves little room for showing your work. But that doesn’t mean that you have to give partial credit to every large sum that’s inked across page A1. Fortunately, there are a few easy tricks you can rely on to suss whether those impressive economic numbers are fact or fake news.

There are nearly as many different types of jobs as there are menu items on Starbucks' ever-changing menu. Naturally, counting them all up into one unified number in the results of an impact analysis grossly under-represents the diversity and dynamism of any given region’s workforce. But it’s possible to look at the unique job taxonomy of a region while still appreciating the big picture. Here are a few key job-related details to consider when interpreting employment impacts: