Promoting excellence in community and economic research since 1961
C2ER released the Cost of Living Index (COLI) third quarter report for 2015 in late October. Among the 265 urban areas that participated in the 2015 third quarter Cost of Living Index, the after-tax cost for a professional/managerial standard of living ranged from more than twice the national average in New York (Manhattan), NY to […]
Continue ReadingThe Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute is excited to release the Workforce Information Council’s (WIC) Skills Initiative Summary Report. This report is the culminating piece of the WIC Skills Initiative, a study group created to engage federal representatives, state labor market information (LMI) directors, and other stakeholders from public policy and higher education in a […]
Continue ReadingFriends of Labor Statistics asks that Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) users directly contact your Senators and Representatives to help prevent BLS from having to cut its statistical programs. The link below provides a template for organizations and individuals to use and revise to specific concerns and circumstances. BLS Appropriations Template
Continue Reading
Passing the annual budget is often a difficult task for state governments, particularly during lean fiscal periods. Over the past few months, Illinois has found resourceful ways to avoid a complete government shutdown after not passing their annual state budget.
Continue Reading
The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) has updated its State Economic Development Program Expenditures Database as part of a continuous effort to track investments in economic development across all fifty states. The database now includes all Governor Recommended Budgets for fiscal year 2016. Read the full report on this update here. According to […]
Continue Reading
Who can argue with the importance of understanding whether or not taxpayer dollars are being used effectively to meet agreed upon policy goals like economic growth? Across the country, the concept of regularly evaluating economic development incentives, including those implemented as tax credits, is broadly accepted. The devil, however, is in the details. The best evaluations follow recognized policy evaluation and data analysis methodologies and principles.
Continue Reading
Users of the C2ER State Business Incentives Database have a new resource for understanding some of the tricky terminology used to describe state business incentives. The Database now features a full Glossary with information on every term utilized in the Database.
Continue ReadingUsers of the C2ER Economic Development Program Expenditures Database may notice differences in how frequently the budget for each state is released. This is because states have the choice of using either annual or biennial budgets, meaning budgets released every two years. Therefore, some states will not release their proposed budget for an extra year, […]
Continue ReadingAs data from the proposed FY2016 State Budgets are released, C2ER has been updating the C2ER State Economic Development Program Expenditures Database. As C2ER staff review the state budgets that have been released over the past few months, they have been looking for investments in apprenticeship programs. Here are highlights from Connecticut, Iowa, and Maryland: […]
Continue ReadingThe Council for Community and Economic Research organized a teleconference-style focus group on March 11, 2015, to learn more about our members’ most commonly-used data sources and to gather recommendations for future products for the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
Continue Reading