2021-12-13 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 2-Noosa Economic Plan Review Update Report 2021

                                   NOOSA LEP REVIEW - ECONOMIC ANALYSIS REPORT - Draft Report


The following cluster maps help us to understand the relative competitive advantage against a
backdrop of future expected employment growth, as well as existing local employment strengths.



 Cluster Mapping
 Cluster mapping is an analytical tool to consider future economic growth opportunities and to
 show the importance and growth opportunities for various clusters or industries within the
 economy. The cluster maps for Noosa show the significance and importance of tourism-linked
 industries such as accommodation and food services, rental, hiring and real estate services and
 retail trade. The mapping also shows the growth potential of various other clusters such as the
 professional, scientific and technical services, health care and social assistance and education and
 training industries.



 Interpreting the Cluster Map
 Cluster mapping is an analytical tool that can simultaneously present the size and scale of a
 location’s competitive advantages with future anticipated growth trends by industry. In cluster
 mapping, a location’s competitive advantage is viewed through labour specialisation (i.e. the
 relative scale of employment in specific industries). There are three main components to the
 cluster map:
     •   Location quotient: the community’s location quotients are presented along the vertical
         axis and these points represent the proportional employment in the community versus a
         comparison, in this instance Queensland (i.e. compared with Queensland, how many
         people are employed in the sector; 1 = the same, 1.2 = 20% more than the state, etc.).
     •   Employment Growth: future employment growth expectations per industry, from 2019 to
         2024, form the horizontal axis and tell us the percentage growth expected for a sector. In
         this instance, projections from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment
         (2020) have been used.
     •   The Cluster: or the ‘bubble’ represents the size of local employment in that given sector,
         which shows the significance of the sector locally.
 Overall, cluster mapping helps to identify industry areas of focus for further development in the
 future.




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