2015 County and Economic Development Regions Population Estimates for New York State

On March 24th, 2016 the U.S. Census Bureau released the County total population estimates for July 1, 2015. The change in population is split in change due to natural increase and due to net-migration. Natural increase is the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths, net-migration the result of people moving in and out of a region.

Six economic regions gained population since April 1, 2010, New York City the most in number (375,443) and in percentage (4.6%). Four economic regions lost population since the latest Decennial Census; the Southern Tier lost the most in number (-9,228) and the Mohawk Valley most in percentage (-1.8%).

More from the Program on Applied Demographics

Economic Development Data from Data (dot) NY (dot) gov

In 2013, Governor Cuomo launched Open New York, data.ny.gov, a state data transparency website that provides user-friendly, one-stop access to data from New York State agencies, localities, and the federal government.

Here are just a few items available through the Economic development section:

1. Active Corporations: Beginning 1800

2. Liquor Authority Quarterly List of Active Licenses Economic Development licenses3

3. Retail Food Stores which are licensed by the Department of Agriculture and Markets.

4. Current Employment Statistics: Beginning 1990, reflecting jobs by "place of work."

5. Jobs By Industry: Donut Chart, based upon an economic profile created for the 10 Empire State Development (ESD) economic development regions.

6. Farmers Markets in New York State Map. In the past decade the number of farmers markets in New York State has grown at a rapid rate. The dataset published on the Department website contains information detailing the time and location of community farmers markets as well as the name and phone number of the market manager.

7. Broadband Availability By Municipality

Long Island's Future: Economic Implications of Today's Choices

The Long Island Index released a report suggesting ways to improve Long Island’s economy and housing options. Accompanying the report is an interactive map that Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service, and the team at the CUNY Graduate Center developed that provides historical context for the report, showing demographic change throughout Long Island over a 40 year period: 1970-2010.

The report is available at the Index’s website and the interactive maps are available here.

More Cities Are Making It Illegal To Hand Out Food To The Homeless

If you don't have a place to live, getting enough to eat clearly may be a struggle. And since homelessness in the U.S. isn't going away and is even rising in some cities, more charitable groups and individuals have been stepping up the past few years to share food with these vulnerable folks in their communities.

But just as more people reach out to help, cities are biting back at those hands feeding the homeless.

According to a report released Monday by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 21 cities have passed measures aimed at restricting the people who feed the homeless since January 2013. In that same time, similar legislation was introduced in more than 10 cities. Combined, these measures represent a 47 percent increase in the number of cities that have passed or introduced legislation to restrict food sharing since the coalition last counted in 2010.

More from NPR.

ALSO:

21 US cities restrict sharing food with homeless people

8 Ways Being Poor Is Wildly Expensive in America

What is Start-Up NY? Who is eligible? What are the benefits?

Ten months after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Start-Up NY, which offers 10 years of broad-based tax savings for companies that locate on or near college campuses, school and state officials say the program is generating considerable interest from the business community.

The governor touts Start-Up NY as an economic-development stimulus program that puts New York – upstate in particular – on an even footing with other states that have more business-friendly reputations.

Colleges here and across the state are awaiting formal approval of their tax-free zone boundaries, with an announcement from the state expected soon. But they’re already marketing Start-Up NY to potential partners...

Start-Up NY is meant to encourage start-up companies – or new divisions spun off from existing companies – to hire new employees and set up shop in a zone connected to a college.

The program’s rules ensure the jobs aren't shifted from somewhere else, the benefits go to new hires and the companies receiving the tax breaks have a connection to the schools.

But economic-development experts say it’s hard to say whether any of the tax-incentive programs introduced by the state have had a significant economic impact in New York, while critics say the program rewards new companies at the expense of existing companies.

More from the Buffalo News.

The Hidden STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Economy

From Brookings:

Workers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields play a direct role in driving economic growth. Yet, because of how the STEM economy has been defined, policymakers have mainly focused on supporting workers with at least a bachelor’s (BA) degree, overlooking a strong potential workforce of those with less than a BA. An analysis of the occupational requirements for STEM knowledge finds that:

As of 2011, 26 million U.S. jobs—20 percent of all jobs—require a high level of knowledge in any one STEM field. STEM jobs have doubled as a share of all jobs since the Industrial Revolution, from less than 10 percent in 1850 to 20 percent in 2010.

Half of all STEM jobs are available to workers without a four-year college degree, and these jobs pay $53,000 on average—a wage 10 percent higher than jobs with similar educational requirements. Half of all STEM jobs are in manufacturing, health care, or construction industries. Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations constitute 12 percent of all STEM jobs, one of the largest occupational categories. Other blue-collar or technical jobs in fields such as construction and production also frequently demand STEM knowledge.

STEM jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree are highly clustered in certain metropolitan areas, while sub-bachelor’s STEM jobs are prevalent in every large metropolitan area. Of large metro areas, San Jose, CA, and Washington, D.C., have the most STEM-based economies, but Baton Rouge, LA, Birmingham, AL, and Wichita, KS, have among the largest share of STEM jobs in fields that do not require four-year college degrees. These sub-bachelor’s STEM jobs pay relatively high wages in every large metropolitan area.

More STEM-oriented metropolitan economies perform strongly on a wide variety of economic indicators, from innovation to employment. Job growth, employment rates, patenting, wages, and exports are all higher in more STEM-based economies. The presence of sub-bachelor’s degree STEM workers helps boost innovation measures one-fourth to one-half as much as bachelor’s degree STEM workers, holding other factors constant. Concentrations of these jobs are also associated with less income inequality.

Subsidy Tracker: Discover Where Corporations are Getting Taxpayer Handouts Across the US

A growing number of state governments are disclosing which companies they are giving tax breaks and other subsidies in the name of job creation and economic development. Yet much of that information is being disseminated through hard-to-find reports and web pages. SUBSIDY TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources--along with unpublished data obtained through open records requests--to create the first national search engine for state economic development subsidies.

Each entry identifies the recipient company and, depending on availability, provides data on the dollar value of the subsidy, the program and state agency involved, the location of the subsidized facility, and the employment impact of the subsidy. Each entry also indicates where the data came from, so the user can go to the original source for more details.

Evaluating State Tax Incentives for Jobs and Growth

A report by the Pew Center on the States (PDF) concludes that 13 states are leading the way in generating much-needed answers about tax incentives’ effectiveness. Twelve states have mixed results. Half the states have not taken the basic steps needed to know whether their incentives are effective. The study highlights a wealth of promising approaches states have taken to help lawmakers find those answers.

New York is in the middle group.

Press release.

A strategy for economic development

How can the U.S. recover from the current prolonged bout of unemployment and generate many good, sustainable jobs in a relentlessly globalizing economy? It’s a question Rockefeller Institute Director Thomas Gais asks in a new commentary. He suggests the country’s future success will depend upon building on its economic strengths, which include an entrepreneurial culture, the excellence of its higher education institutions and its regional diversity. These strengths can be combined to great effect, Gais writes, as recent Institute studies of the State University of New York and other institutions have shown.
We must exploit and expand upon universities’ role as the engines of innovation in an economy increasingly reliant on knowledge, Gais writes in “A Home-Grown Strategy for Economic Growth.” Read his commentary on the Institute’s Web site.

Commitment to Development Index 2010

Which rich countries are doing the most to help poor ones? Rich and poor nations are linked in many ways—by foreign aid, commerce, the environment, and more. Each year, the CDI rates rich-country governments on how much they are helping poor countries via seven key linkages: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology. The CDI then takes the average for an overall score.

To see if countries live up to their potential to help, scoring adjusts for size. So small countries can beat big ones.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

From Hill Library:

Did you know that "foreign direct investment (FDI) into 17 countries, including France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, fell by 50% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the last quarter of 2008?" So reports the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Check out the OECD for global statistics on topics related to the economy, society, development, finance, and more. You can access publications and documents, information by country, or statistics. Find indicators for economic growth, competition, education, migration, biotechnology, and so much more.

Don't miss the most frequently requested statistics, some of which include consumer price indices, forecasts, health, hourly earnings, labor costs, population, and retail trade. The OECD also provides a searchable glossary of statistical terms under the "Don't miss" navigation box in the upper right corner of the site.

Best Performing Cities Index

The somewhat misleadingly titled Index actually ranks large and small metropolitan areas, separately, "by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth."

For New York State, the news could be worse. The best rank is for NYC/White Plains/ Wayne, NJ at #85, up from #148 last year.
Other improvemements:
96. Nassau-Suffolk (up from #139)
125. Binghamton (up from #147)
127. Syracuse (up from #174)
134. Utica-Rome (up from #164)
138. Albany-Schenectady-Troy (up from #166)

Not all the news was good. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown plunged from #87 to #159, while Buffalo-Niagara Falls (#183 to #180) and Rochester (#182 to #181) barely moved.

For the small cities, Ithaca (#97 to #64), Glens Falls (#77 to #72) and Kingston (#128 to #77) all were heading in the right direction.

Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report

Source: Cato Institute

From the press release:
Economic freedom around the world remains on the rise but it has declined notably in the U.S. since the year 2000, according to an authoritative study released today by the Cato Institute and Canada’s Fraser Institute.

In 2000 the U.S. was the second-freest economy listed in Economic Freedom of the World, an annual report written by James Gwartney from Florida State University and Robert Lawson from Auburn University. This year the U.S. has fallen to 8th place, behind Hong Kong (ranked in first place), Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Chile, and Canada.

More significant than the U.S.’s drop in the rankings is its fall in the freedom ratings: on a scale of 0-10, the U.S. fell from 8.55 in 2000 to 8.04, according to the Economic Freedom of the World Report: 2008 Annual Report. Only five countries have experienced a greater decline over the same time period: Zimbabwe, Argentina, Niger, Venezuela, and Guyana.

The new OECD Stats site

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has a new site here. I found using the new software choice worked much better.

Browse Themes for options or download all country measures via General Statistics - Country Profiles.

State Economic Competitiveness Index

Newt Gingrich noted recently a recent report from the American Legislative Exchange Council called Rich States, Poor States. It's based on the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index and is compiled by by Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore. It notes how these factors affect out-migration:
Highest marginal personal income tax rate
• Highest marginal corporate income tax rate
• Progressivity of the personal income tax system
• Property tax burden
• Sales tax burden
• Tax burden from all remaining taxes
• Estate tax/Inheritance tax (Yes or No)
• Recent Tax Policy Changes 2005-06
• Debt service as share of tax revenue
• Public employees per 10,000 residents
• Quality of state legal system
• State minimum wage
• Workers’ Compensation costs
• Right-to-work state (Yes or No)
• Tax/Expenditure Limit
• Education Freedom Index

New York does not fare well. Here's a story about the California experience.

Access info on the individual states here.

EconomicIndicators.gov - R.I.P.

Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:

This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department’s Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself–say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau’s site–is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.

Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March 1.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/13/economic-indicators/

Industry Economic Accounts

From the Dept. of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis: "Annual Input-Output Accounts for the U.S. Economy" report, plus info on Research and Development, Travel and Tourism, and Transportation.

New York Factoids

Top Facts

Tour Our State

Home to Business

Notable NYC businesses

Why Upstate NYS is Ready for Business

Facts for Kids, which I suspect some grown-ups don't know

Links

More Links, especially of history

Economic Development Directory

"80 directories of selected economic development agencies, economic development consultants and economic development associations worldwide. Only selected websites with significant economic development information are listed."

Here are some for New York State.

Take the Money and Don't Run

Last Monday's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article in the Regional Economic Roundup (A Special Report): Take the Money and Don't Run; States continue to lure businesses with promises of tax breaks and grants; But now the deals come with a catch: You don't get the cash until we get the jobs. by Conor Dougherty. WSJ. (Eastern edition). June 11, 2007. pg. R.1

Here's the abstract:
Now governments are making sure that their incentive plans come with a catch. Many are using "clawback" provisions that let governments recover their money if companies leave town or go belly-up. In other cases, governments don't pay companies until they actually create jobs. One city is even proposing a "no poaching" agreement to get more leverage over businesses, where neighboring cities promise to limit the use of incentives to lure companies from each other.

"It's a 'united we stand' kind of approach," says Charles Bichara, director of economic development for Middleburg Heights.

"No one can predict or guarantee economic conditions, which will ultimately determine the long-term viability of any business venture," says Jay Biggins, executive managing director at Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co., which represents companies in negotiating incentive packages. If a project doesn't meet expectations, and a clawback becomes necessary, Mr. Biggins says, "that's the system working."

To get the full-text article, you can go to a database that contains the WSJ, such as ABI/Inform Global. That includes the New York State Library, if you have a P card. If you don't have access, let me know , and I'll see what I can do.
***
The WSJ's video about Naugatuck, CT's plan to use a new transit system to "breathe life into the city's economy." (3:11, after a 0:15 commercial.)