Linking Industry and Occupation Clusters in Regional Economic Development

Research to date suggests that occupation clusters may be at least as important as industry clusters in driving regional competitive advantage. A nationwide mapping of occupation clusters, with data available for every U.S. county and the capability to aggregate counties to a regional level, serves as a powerful complement to an understanding of industry clusters, the major focus of a previous EDA-funded project conducted by partners in this research team. This paper explains the importance of occupation cluster analysis, how 15 different occupation clusters were developed as part of this study, the results and products from the analysis, and the applications and implications of using occupation cluster analysis at the local and regional levels.