Analyze Your Economy

Welcome to the Community Economic Analysis (CEA) Tools!

The CEA Tools are interactive analytical tools that use a step-by-step process to assess the economic conditions, strengths and weaknesses of communities in Ontario. These tools can help you identify the competitive advantages or disadvantages in your municipality or region, to guide strategic decisions for local development.

There are several types of analysis to choose from:

• Competitive Advantage Analysis uses Census data to assess how local industries have grown or declined in employment compared to other communities and determines how specialized your community is in different sectors, using “location quotients”. The analysis classifies local industries according to their potential for employment growth.

• Labour Flow Analysis compares the number of jobs at local establishments with jobs held by local residents, to identify the level of “net export” or “net import” of labour.

• Community Business Profile and Business Sector Analysis use business data to compare your local mix of businesses with other areas of the province and to locate areas with a high concentration of businesses in particular sectors .

• Retail Analysis uses retail sales, population and income data to measure the extent to which the retail sector is drawing in, or leaking out, sales in different areas of Ontario.

• Socio-Economic Indicators lets you produce maps that display the municipalities in a selected geographic area according to levels of median income, % of seniors, average value of dwellings and numerous other socio-economic attributes.

The choices you make at each “Step” in the Tools will determine the options available at subsequent steps in the analysis. Generally speaking, however, the analysis will let you produce a community profile of all sectors or an assessment of a specific sector and its sub-sectors in your community. Some types of analysis enable you to select the communities to which you would like to compare your local economy.

When the analysis is complete, you can choose the type and format of “report”. You can generate and print colour maps and/or tabular reports in various software formats. These reports can be used in marketing and communications materials, or as discussion pieces during local strategic planning.