Grant Writer’s Toolkit
for Workforce & Economic Developers

This report covers a wide variety of data points for your selected region.

You can base your selection on pre-set region names or region groups, or based on factors like drive time and radius from a specific address.

The Economy Overview report will show you a simple summary of the region’s Population, Total Regional Employment, and Median Household Income. Depending on your level of access, you can also choose to compare the basic data points of your region to additional regions such as counties, zip codes, cities, MSAs, and states.

The Labor Force Breakdown provides unique data on who is participating in your region's labor force and what their employment status is.

This data provides a closer look at some of the demographics, veteran status, and crime data for your region, and compares your region to the US as a whole.

Drawn from our Job Posting Analytics data, skill demand is crucial for understanding and demonstrating what your local employers need. Demand for specific skills highlights the importance of local workforce programs that align with job openings that need to be filled. (Note: For an even more granular approach to this data, our other Job Posting Reports show not only what skills are currently in-demand, but also which new skills are emerging in job postings within the region that a workforce board may want to prepare for.)

Once you have selected the map, select the region you are interested in. You can also select Economic, Social, or Housing characteristics to look from. If you are unsure, select "Custom Data Selection" and run the report.

The data points on the region you’ve selected include Disabled Population, Average Household Size, Veteran Population, income status, and more. To further customize the data points, select the “Add/Remove Columns” button. It brings up the Custom Data Selection menu. There you will find all the available data points. They fall under the categories: Housing, Social, and Economic Characteristics. You are also able to change the region from State or County to MSA. You can click on each column headers to show that data point on the map and sort by that column in the table below the map. This creates a custom data visual for you to include in your grant application.

Add the industry and location selections to your search. In this example, we are looking at “Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing” in the Greensboro, NC, metro area. Once you have added your search metrics, hit “Run.” (Note: "Industry Snapshot" is a separate report and includes slightly different visuals and links from the ones we've highlighted here.)

From here, you can change your time frame, update your class of worker, and export the entire report or just clips of it.

Using the charts in the Industry Snapshot can help strengthen an application that may have a page limit. All reports in Developer include downloadable images to streamline your grant application. All images come with a Lightcast citation. The ability to add other regions to compare to yours within the report can also make an impact when showing how your region is growing or impacted by job loss.

The Legacy Industry Snapshot includes a Gross Regional Product breakdown, with a "jump to" link to the top 5 of the supply chain for the selected industry. You'll also find a list of the top five occupations employed by the industry in your region, which provides a "jump to" link to staffing patterns.

Those interested in industry demographics can find out which groups of people are working in the selected industry and region. And users who subscribe to Business Listings (powered by Database USA) can identify the five largest businesses in the industry.

From there, you can select your metrics. The "Browse" function will allow you to look at data for multiple occupations in the same category, such as the "Blue Collar" group shown in this example. You can also enter your region manually, browse regions, or select one based on Drive Time, Radius from Address, or another preset group.

Once the map has loaded, use the drop-down menu to select the region by MSA, county, census tract, or zip code to tell your story. On the left side, you can also adjust the occupations you want to look at, the region you want to explore, your time frames, and your worker class. Like most Lightcast reports, you can use the Add/Remove Columns button to change the selected metrics.

When you click on the column header, the map will visualize the data from that column. The eye dropper icon will also colorize the column as a heat map. The map can be customized to make it easier to see and read by selecting the layer mark on the top right corner of the map. In the example shown here, the column titled "2024 Net Commuters" is selected. This data shows where workers live and work. The blue areas indicate more jobs than residents while the red indicates more residents than jobs.

From there, you can select your region and the occupation you wish to explore.

First, gain an understanding of your selected occupation's wages, job growth, education requirements, etc. And then click through to the skills tranferability table to discover which other jobs align most closely to the skills in your selected occupation. You can click on each of these to see a similar occupation overview.

Within the main Skills Transferability report, scroll down to see which knowledge, skills, and abilities are most associated with the occuption.

Choose "Impact Scenario" from the list of reports. Then add your region and a 6-digit industry (or group of industries). You can then model the impact to jobs, earnings, or sales using the drop down by the industry name. Then, input the change to the “Change” box by either adding or subtracting the unit you wish to model. Then hit run. In this example we are using the Seattle-Tacoma, WA, MSA and job change in four tech-related industries.

Once you are in the report you will be able to assess the change in earnings, sales, and taxes for each selected industry. You can also make adjustments to your selected date, region, or industries or choose any of the "+" icons for a more detailed breakdown of the impacts shown.

From the previous screen, you can click on any of the categories to see the breakdown of how those impacts are expected to occur based on the changes you selected. By clicking “Show Job Distribution” on the bottom right corner or the report, you can also see what industries, occupations, and demographics will be affected by the change.