Describe and Compare Industrial Specialization

Part 1: collecting 2002 Economic Census data from the Census Bureau's World Wide Web home page for the 13 Chicago CMSA counties. Chicago: Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Kenosha (WI), Lake (IL), Lake (IN), McHenry, Porter (IN), and Will.

Steps: http://www.census.gov

From Web Page: -click on American Factfinder -click on Get Data under Economic Census-click on Quick Reports-click on select from the U.S., states, counties, and more under Geography Quick Reports-Select County under Geographic Type-Select Illinois under State-Select Cook County and click Show Results-Click Download and choose first option (csv file)-Rename the file to CookIL and save-Repeat for remaining 12 counties for Chicago area-Exit Browser

Final spreadsheet should have 12 additional columns, one for each of the remaining 12 counties with total column at the end(that says 100)

Describe and compare the industrial specialization within the Chicago MSA.

Method: There are several methods for measuring an area's industrial specialization. The method we will use in this project is known as a "location quotient." The location quotient expresses the share of employment in a given industry in a specified county of an MSA as a percentage of the share of employment in the same industry within the total MSA's economy.

Example of County X:
County X MSA X
wholesale 8.7% 5.5%
Manufacturing 17.6.% 22.8%
To determine county X's specialization in wholesale and manufacturing relative to the MSA we plug the percent employed into the following equation:
wholesale (8.7 / 5.5) * 100 = 158
Mfg. (17.6 / 22.8) * 100 = 77
A location quotient greater than 100 indicates specialization and LQ under 100 indicates that the county is not specialized in that category.

Part 2 Instructions

1. Calculate location quotients for the industrial groupings obtained in part 1 from the 2002 Economic Census. To obtain the numerator, divide the number employed in a given industry for a given county by the total employment in that county. To obtain the denominator, divide the number employed in a given industry for the MSA divided by the total MSA employment. Instructions to do in Excel to be provided.

2. Transfer data to maps.

a. Choose two industries and construct a frequency distribution of the location quotients for each of these industries.

b. Looking at the frequency distribution, decide upon some groupings to identify especially high location quotients and especially low location quotients. Assign a symbol or color to these groupings.

c. Print two copies of the Chicago base map and transfer the symbols or colors from the frequency distribution described above to the maps. The Industries should be on the X axis-along the bottom.

3. Write an essay (introduction, body, and conclusion) describing the location of industry types within the Chicago MSA. Turn in your essay attached with a table of location quotients, 2 frequency distributions, and 2 maps.

See attached file for full problem description.