How Sector Strategies Support Regional Economic Development

Labor markets rarely span an entire state, and employers and job seekers do not recognize artificial geo-political boundaries such as workforce or economic development areas. Good sector strategies use labor market information (such as location quotients, job growth, job quality indicators) to determine critical industries (those that drive economic activity in a region) and their true geographic labor market areas. Knowing the critical industries and their labor market regions can help state and regional systems understand how and where to focus their public dollars to develop sector partnerships. This module offers suggestions on how state agency leaders and administrators, as well as local practitioners, can target their critical industries to grow their regional economies.