Author: Chi Wong
The 2018-2028 long-term industry employment projections dashboards are a powerful new tool to explore anticipated trends in industry employment for North Carolina and its constituent regions. This blog provides a small set of tips for users that want to learn how to take advantage of the workbook, but are unsure of how to start.
1. The value of tooltips
Each tab displays information about industry projections through visual representations such as shapes, bars, and colors. However, you may still want to see some of the exact numbers associated with specific industries (e.g. growth rate, projected employment change). Hovering over any given visual element will display those exact figures in a box known as a tooltip.
In this example, Charlotte is colored darkly, indicating that it is projected to be one of the fastest growing regions in the state. The tooltip reveals the exact growth rate (1.07%).
2. Focus on the “quadrants” of the Regional Growth Rate & Wage chart for valuable insights on high potential industries
Which industries are growing quickly and pay well in each region? This question can be answered using the Regional Growth Rate and Wage visualization, located on the right-hand side of the “Base and Projected Employment” tab. This tool plots each sector industry by its growth rate and average weekly wage. For ease of interpretation, the scatter plot is divided into “quadrants” using the regional growth rate across all industries and the 2018 regional average weekly wage as dotted lines. Industries that end up above the growth rate line are growing faster than the regional average, and industries that end up to the right of the regional average weekly wage line pay more than the regional average. The upper right quadrant represents the best opportunities (high growth and high wage), while the lower left presents the lesser valued opportunities (low growth and low wage).
Using the depicted example, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services is a High-Growth, High-Wage industry (indicated also by the blue color), and Retail Trade is a Low-Growth, Low-Wage industry (indicated also by the red color) relative to the state averages.
3. Colors can help you dig into the Industry Ranking tab
Which industries are projected to grow fastest in a given region? The answers can be found via the Industry Ranking dashboard. As its name suggests, this visual organizes sector industries and subsector industries by their growth rate. The organization is accentuated by color, as subsector industries are colored by their sector industries.
In the above example, Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (521) and Securities, Commodities Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities (523) are two of the fastest growing subsector industries in North Carolina and are colored the same as Finance and Insurance (52), the industry highlighted via tooltip.