Method and system for locating a workforce

The present invention claims priority from provisional patent application No. 61/001,826 filed on Nov. 5, 2007.

The present invention generally relates to a computer-implemented method and system that helps an employer to access and analyze employee-demographics which are critical to making workforce decisions between and amongst geographic areas. More specifically, the present invention uses computer automated SQL statements to extract, integrate, and index disparate data associated with at least one database over a Network. Non-limiting examples of disparate data may include statistical data essential to quantifying various industry and occupation variables that is mined from federal and/or commercial databases and maintained on a private database. Common geographical areas may link the disparate data, which is returned to the user as viewable raw data and/or index values. A user may then compare disparate data essential to quantifying and qualifying industry and occupation variables on an “apples to apples” basis.

Business owners examine many variables when assessing the advantages and disadvantages associated with finding qualified people to fill its workforce. Whether a business is relocating, building in a new area, expanding, or diversifying its workforce, poor analysis of industry and occupational variables frustrates a business\'s ability to make informed decisions. The cost and risk of making the wrong decision as to which geographic areas to explore, relative to workforce decisions, are significant. Once one or more target geographic areas are selected for investment or further research, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and weeks, even months or years, are at risk if even one critical variable does not meet its threshold value. The industry and occupational variables may include without limitation: the size of a metropolitan area, the number and types of minorities within an occupation, occupation employment, occupation unemployment, occupation wage, standard of living, industry unemployment, industry employment, total employment for an area, total unemployment for an area, job creation, new hires in occupations and industry, separations, turnover rate, average wages, cost of living, average wage inverse, unemployment, unemployment average, industry workforce, percentage of minorities, gender make up of an area, and the like. All variables are analyzed with respect to an employer\'s prioritized needs and interest in having a business in a certain geographic area.

Currently, the data for locating workers is collected by various agencies, non-limiting examples being the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, America\'s Labor Market Information System, Council for Community and Economic Research, other private agencies, and the like. However, their databases are decentralized and somewhat chaotic. Each agency\'s system is designed for a different purpose, and, as a result, they often measure the same variable differently. Therefore, they arrive at results that may confuse non-economists. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau contains statistical data as related to industry while the Bureau of Labor and Statistics contains statistical data relating to occupations within industries.

Analyzers study and develop findings and conclusions for each database individually, but it is difficult to compare the data from each database on an “apples to apples” basis. None of these methods use a normalization variable or truly integrate the data from the databases into a coherent relationship to quickly analyze an employer\'s needs when filing its workforce.

Other methods include an in-depth and costly study of variables within a selected set of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs. The drawbacks to these methods include selecting a bad area to either relocate or start your business, where the area is unattractive because of basic demographic, geographic, or economic variables that were difficult to identify prior to doing a more in depth study. It is important for businesses to eliminate all of the bad choices before paying a quarter million dollars to do a feasibility study on entering a specific geographic region to do business.

Therefore, there is a need for a computer-implemented method and system that allows an employer to access and analyze employee demographics which are critical to making workforce decisions between and amongst geographic areas. The present invention meets this need via a computer-implemented method and system that extracts, integrates, and/or indexes data from at least one database having disparate data over a Network. The data relates to statistical data essential to quantifying occupational and industry variables. The data may be linked by common geographical areas, indexed, and presented to a user to assess the same.

Embodiments of the present invention address these problems via a computer-implemented method for extracting, integrating, and creating index and/or percentile values of disparate data from one or more tables in a database the method comprises: a.) receiving user selections relating to industries and occupations that form a structured language query; b.) the structured language query of step a.) being presented to a database having tables with disparate statistical data relating to industries and occupations; c.) having a structured language query extract the disparate statistical data of step b.) from the database corresponding to the user\'s selections of step a.); d.) having a structured language query within the database convert some, or all, of the extracted statistical data of step c.) into index or percentile values; and e.) having a structured language query return the statistical data and/or the converted statistical data of step d.) to the user as integrated data, indexed values, percentile values, and/or any combinations thereof.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein the user comprises a business, the media, or any other person or organization that needs to choose or allocate resources between or among geographical areas.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein user selections are accessed over a Network at a computer server by web based applications, wherein user selections indicate at least one cell within at least one column and/or row of at least one database table having statistical data relating to industries and occupations within the database.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein user selections are accessed from a permanent or temporary computer file located on the user\'s computer, wherein user selections indicate at least one cell within at least one column and/or row of at least one database table having statistical data relating to industries and occupations within the database.

It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the user selections comprises occupational categories and/or occupational subcategories, various industry categories and/or industry subcategories, query variables for the same, and/or any combinations thereof.

Yet another aspect of the present invention includes having query variables comprising the size of a metropolitan area, the number and types of minorities within an occupation, occupation employment within a geographic area, occupation unemployment within a geographic area, occupation wage within a geographic area, standard of living within a geographic area, industry unemployment within a geographic area, industry employment within a geographic area, total occupation employment within a geographic area, total occupation unemployment within a geographic area, total industry employment within a geographic area, total industry unemployment within a geographic area, job creation within a geographic area, new hires within a geographic area, separations within a geographic area, turnover rate within a geographic area, average wages within a geographic area, cost of living within a geographic area, average wage inverse within a geographic area, industry unemployment within a geographic area, unemployment average within a geographic area, industry workforce within a geographic area, percentage of minorities within a geographic area, gender make up within a geographic area, the percent of industry employment in the given occupation, the percent of establishments reporting the given occupation in the given industry, the mean hourly industry and/or occupation wage, the mean annual industry and/or occupation wage, the percent relative standard error for the mean wage, employment percent relative error, and/or any combinations thereof.

Still another aspect of the present invention includes having all statistical data associated with each query variable being returned, displayed, or stored on the user\'s computer as raw data, an index value, or a percentile value.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein the geographic area is a Metropolitan Statistical Area as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics define the industry and occupation categories and subcategories thereof, or are harmonized to correspond to those categories or subcategories.

It is an aspect of the present invention, wherein said database is a private database housed on a computer server and accepts query languages comprising MS SQL/ASP.NET, MS Access/Visual Basic, MySQL/Coldfusion (CFML), HSQL/JSP (J2EE), PostgreSQL/Perl, MS SQL/Foxpro, Oracle/ASP.NET.