Nebraska Public Power District’s Economic Development Research Team provides an array of programs and materials to support Nebraska communities in the retention, expansion, and attraction of businesses to strengthen their local economies. The following provides a brief description of some of the studies, surveys, and documents created by the Research Team; this list contains only a few examples of the information that can be provided. If you are interested in obtaining any of the following research services for your community, please contact NPPD’s Economic Development Department by calling (402) 563-5534, or by emailing econdev@nppd.com.
- Trend Studies
Economic and demographic trend studies provide data on labor force, employment, wages, population, migration, residence and work flow patterns, retail sales, and income for a city and county, and comparable data for surrounding counties. Trend Studies have been completed for a number of Nebraska counties.
- Labor Studies
Labor studies provide information along with recent population, labor force, occupation, industry, and wage data for a community’s laborshed. Labor studies typically provide an overall view of the laborshed’s workforce and labor force but can also be customized to focus on the needs of specific industries.
- Impact Studies
Preliminary estimates of economic impacts associated with a specific proposed project in Nebraska are calculated utilizing a Micro IMPLAN input-output model for the state economy. These models are often developed with the Micro IMPLAN database and input-output modeling software. The IMPLAN database consists of more than 20 economic and demographic variables for 440 sectors for each of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States. Some impacts estimated include employment, payments to labor, payments to other factors of production, and output by industry sector, as well as government and household purchases.
- Surveys
Nebraska Public Power District utilizes SurveyMonkey® to perform confidential surveys for the communities it serves to assist in strategic planning, community needs assessments, and other general types of surveys where input is helpful.
- Targeting/Opportunity Studies
The targeting studies process identifies opportunities for communities to focus their resources to retain, expand, or recruit key businesses. Targeting opportunity studies are a joint effort of the local economic development organization, NPPD and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. The targeting processed is based on a strategy developed for Nebraska by the Battelle Group. The process is driven by community information and requires data from local Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) visits or recent surveys of key local industries.
NPPD subscribes to vendor supplied electronic databases to obtain data relating to community labor, workforce, and wage information. The information improves NPPD’s ability to assist communities develop responses to requests for information (RFIs) and requests for proposals (RFPs).
If you are interested in undertaking a targeting study for your community, please contact NPPD’s Economic Development Department by calling (402) 563-5534, or by emailing econdev@nppd.com.