Economic Development Performance Measures

Measuring economic development goes well beyond looking at the retention and creation of jobs in a community.  Ideally, your metrics should be tied to the specific goals of your economic development strategy.  This is a sample list of metrics by category that CALED members used to measure the impact of their activities.  This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it a universal list that all economic development programs should be measured against.  If you would like to contribute sample metrics to this list, please contact CALED.

Community Development

  • Percent of organizations that have adopted sustainable development goals
  • Government subsidies as percent of gross income
  • Annual capital dollars invested in municipal infrastructure
  • Percent of sustainable development compatible legislation
  • Number % of projects meeting objectives
  • Number of communities aided
  • Number aided water/wastewater systems achieving goals
  • Number of communities improving their telecommunications connectivity
  • Percent of cities desiring industrial development that have marketable industrial sites
  • Investments in community facilities by type of facility
  • Number of communities with strategic plans
  • Percent of department investment in distressed areas
  • Change in distress level of aided communities
  • Percent of department investments in rural communities
  • Percent of small businesses assisted
  • Percent of minority and women owned businesses assisted

Real Estate

  • Industrial space used
  • Office vacancy rate
  • Number of building permits issued
  • Value of industrial and commercial property
  • Percent of new residential lots

Economic Measures

  • Capital investments per job
  • Commercial investment
  • Amount/% of tax collected by industry
  • Number and value of business loans
  • Per capita debt
  • GDP per capita
  • Total dollars and dollars per capita deposited in local banks annually
  • Dollars spent in locally-owned businesses
  • Retail sales per capita
  • Tourism/bed tax revenues
  • Retail sales as a percent of personal income
  • Amount of private sector investment in EDA projects as a result of grants
  • Amount of state and local funds committed for EDA projects

Labor & Workforce

  • Total wage and salary jobs per employed resident
  • Number of jobs in value-added manufacturing
  • Net job growth
  • Percent of jobs created/retained above county average wage
  • Average Salaries
  • Manufacturing wage and salary jobs as a percent of total jobs
  • Wages/benefits as compared to state levels or area with similar industry mix
  • Number of job candidates with certifiable skills or college degrees
  • Occupational distribution of women and minorities
  • Unemployment rate
  • Average earning per job
  • Employment in hotel and lodging industry
  • Employment by sector
  • Jobs created/retained per FTE
  • Number of commitments per FTE
  • Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance

Business Measures

  • Number of companies who export
  • Percent of GDP spent on research & development
  • Business participation in school and civic events
  • Percent of companies developing new products or services
  • State rank in telecommunications technology
  • New business started/New business licenses
  • Number of environmental services, products, and technologies exported
  • Percent of GDP from secondary production and business services
  • Number of business establishments
  • Manufacturing productivity
  • Value of business personal property per worker
  • Value of goods exported internationally
  • Farm Acreage
  • Values of key natural resources
  • Value added in hotel and lodging industry
  • Areas of Cropland that have been converted to developed land
  • Number of commercial crop varieties
  • Number of cluster identified
  • Growth in number of clusters identified in comparison to previous year
  • Growth of clusters compared to state growth of same cluster
  • Job growth in identified clusters
  • New sales of assisted exporters
  • Amount of freight transported by air, water, and land
  • New car inventories–US dealers’ day’s supply