.id launches National Economic Indicators Series

.id, in conjunction with NIEIR (National Economics), have released a key set of economic indicators for every Local Government Area (LGA) in Australia. The indicators provide a snapshot of each local economy, showing how it contributes to the broader State economy and how it is performing in relation to other areas. Read on to learn more and access the indicators series.

What is the National Economic Indicators Series?

The National Economic Indicators Series is a set of key indicators drawn from National Economics (NIEIR) modeling and other relevant data sources that are now available for every LGA in Australia.

Delivered online, the series will be updated annually, capturing a view of each local economy at a point in time and showing how it contributes to the broader State economy and how it is travelling.

This series is a subset of a much larger repository of economic information that is available through economy.id. Links to the larger data set are provided where they are available.

We will put a link to the National Economic Indicators Series on all of our clients’ profile.id and economy.id websites.

These indicators have been develop as part of the 2011 upgrade to our suite of online demographic and economic profiling tools, and as with our other products are accessible to anyone who has access to the internet.  Click on the image to access the Series.

Why is it important?

–    Do you know the size of your LGA’s economy?

–    Do you know how much of the State’s economy your LGA contributes?

–    Do you know how many jobs there are in your LGA?

These questions should be straightforward to answer, but they weren’t – until now.

Economic data, such as GDP, is calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the country and each State. It is not calculated for regions or LGAs. Therefore the only way to get a realistic measure of local economic activity is to undertake economic modeling.

Many of our clients approached us to see if we could supply this information. So we went on a search for the best source of local area economic data we could find.

Accurately measuring local economies

One of our most important criteria was that the model reflect the unique economic characteristics of each local area. We didn’t want a model that simply applied State-based propensities across Local Government Areas because this assumes that the economic characteristics of all local areas are the same, and we know they are not. A mining job in Perth City is of very different value to one in Roebourne Shire for example.

Accurately counting the number of local jobs

Another important criteria was to find a model that did not rely on Census counts of employment. Whilst the Census is an invaluable source of demographic data, Census counts of employment are notoriously inaccurate with up to 20% undercount due to the automatic exclusion of people who are employed but fail to state a location or can’t be coded to their workplace address.  Twenty percent undercount! And this is one of local government’s key economic development measures.

Enter Peter Brain from the National Institute of Economic Research (NIEIR).

NIEIR are recognised as industry leaders in the development and provision of robust economic modeling at the smallest credible geographic unit. For over 10 years NIEIR have been producing the annual benchmark State of Regions Report commissioned by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA). Both of our organisations are dedicated to producing quality information for local government decision makers.

NIEIR have highly sophisticated methodologies for estimating accurate employment and GRP figures for local areas. You can read more about this in the About and Data Notes pages of the economic indicators website.

We hope you enjoy learning more about your economy. And please share the link with anyone inside or outside your council who you think will benefit from this resource- http://economic-indicators.id.com.au