.. Harris County, TX (Houston) gained 1,658 business establishments between 2012 and 2013. How did the number and characteristics of business establishments in your counties or region of interest change? These data are available by county (and ZIP code) and can be used to determine which counties (ZIP codes) are experiencing business growth or decline and by how much. See more about this topic in the related Web section.
These data are based on a annual count of business establishments by physical location that have at least one paid employee. A single company may have multiple business establishments. Attributes of individual establishments, including payroll and employment, are summarized/aggregated by county and ZIP code area. The establishment data are also summarized by the NAICS type of business code. See more about these data.
Examine a specific industry such as construction. Among all counties, Harris County, TX had the highest 2013 employment in the construction industry (see more below). Where do your counties/ZIP code areas rank (in this or any other industry)?
The following views illustrate how Geographic Information System (GIS) tools can be used to visually examine change in business patterns. Use the CV XE GIS and associated GIS project to examine establishments, payroll and employment by detailed type of business. These applications shown change for one year; choose a different set of years. Integrate your own data such as market territories or customer/prospect data to examine how business opportunities match up with existing and changing patterns.
Change in Business Establishments, 2012-2013 — Texas by County
The following graphic shows the change in the number of business establishments by county in Texas and adjacent areas. Metros are shown with bold black outlines. Color patterns show change in the number of establishments between 2012 and 2013. It is easy to see which counties have business establishment growth (blue/green) or decline (orange/red). Use the GIS resources to develop similar business patterns views for any state/area in the U.S. The legend at left of map (click graphic for larger view with legend) shows establishment change intervals by color.
— view created using CV XE GIS and associated GIS Project
— click graphic for larger view showing details.
Change in Business Establishments, 2012-2013 — Houston Area
The following graphic shows the change in the number of business establishments by county with a zoom-in view of the Houston area. Use the GIS resources to zoom in to any county/region of the U.S. The legend at left of map (click graphic for larger view with legend) shows establishment change intervals by color. Counties are labeled with county name and percent change in the number of establishments between 2012 and 2013.
— view created using CV XE GIS and associated GIS Project
— click graphic for larger view showing details.
Profile of County Business Establishment Change
The following table shows a basic overview of the change. There is much more detail available. The GIS project enables mixing demographic with economic and business data.
Database Queries:
Counties with Highest Employment in Construction Industry
Consider a requirement to determine the list of 10 counties having the highest employment in the construction industry. The 2.1 million record database with county by type of business is opened with the CV XE GIS dBrowse operation/feature. Note that this database size exceeds the Excel limit. A query is placed on the database to show on NAICS (type of business) code “23—-” having number of 2013 employment of 10,000 or more. The query could have been any NAICS code in combination with another attribute or none. The table is then sorted in descending order on 2013 employment (by clicking the sort button). The resulting records/counties are displayed as shown. The county FIPS code 201 in state FIPS code 48 (Harris County) has the highest total construction industry employment in the U.S. It is easy to see the other top 10 (or some group) that are also highly ranked. The Count operation is used to shown how many counties meet this criteria; there are 118. Other selected attributes are shown in the table/graphic. This selection could optionally be exported to a file in a different format (e.g., CSV).
An upcoming section will review linking business establishment data with demographic data.
About the Author
— Warren Glimpse is former senior Census Bureau statistician responsible for innovative data access and use operations. He is also the former associate director of the U.S. Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards for data access and use. He has more than 20 years of experience in the private sector developing data resources and tools for integration and analysis of geographic, demographic, economic and business data.
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