Alabama’s Coastal Economic Inventory
Quarterly Report: October 22, 2010
Dr Terry Hanson and Ms Jeana Baker
Summary: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill will have significant impacts on coastal
communities in the Gulf region for a number of years. In addition to recognizing the
long-term effects as a result to the oil spill, it is equally important to understand the
context of the oil spill by realizing pre-spill disturbances such as hurricanes, economic
recessions, and human-caused activities. Although the magnitude of the oil spill has not
been determined, this report serves as first quarter work regarding inventory and
providing an overview of the trends that characterize Alabama’s coastal economies. This
report includes employment statistics, commercial fishing landings’ trends and industry
composition, tourism, recreational, and seafood processing impacts for Baldwin and
Mobile Counties, all of which establish a baseline for future periods of work involving
coastal impact assessments. Additionally, the work conducted in the first quarter has
been placed on a website developed during this period and can be found at:
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/marine-assessment/index.php.
Background: On July 15, 2010 SeaGrant Extension created a Response and Recovery
Task Force for the five affected Gulf States. As a part of Extension’s initiative, a Disaster
Assistance team emerged and began compiling key economic indicators related to
various sectors of the community and work force for Alabama’s coastal counties.
Employment: Jobs are the backbone to any economy. With high unemployment rates
nationwide, this is a growing concern for many Americans especially those directly
impacted by the oil spill. To capture the employment dynamics (pre-spill) for Mobile and
Baldwin Counties, a table of major employers as well as marine-related jobs by sector
were compiled from secondary and are presented below.
Industry Composition: If jobs are the wheels, industry is the engine, which keeps the
economy running. Alabama’s leading job generator for the State, Baldwin and Mobile
counties and the State comes from the local and state government sector, see Highest
Ranked Industries below and earnings per work by sector.
Alabama, Highest Ranked Industries
1
Source: EMSI Complete Employment - 2nd Quarter 2010
Baldwin County, Highest Ranked Largest Industries
Source: EMSI Complete Employment - 2nd Quarter 2010
2
Mobile, County Highest Ranked Industries
Source: EMSI Complete Employment - 2nd Quarter 2010
For more details related to the breakdown of jobs by sector for Mobile and Baldwin
Counties and state, please refer to the industry table created on the official Marine
Resources Assessment Web site at
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/marine-assessment/industry-impacts.php
Marine-related Fisheries Employment Statistics: 1st Quarter (Pre-Spill) 2009 and
2010.
Baldwin County, AL Marine-Related
Jobs
114112 Shellfish Fishing
114111 Finfish fishing
311712 Fresh and Frozen Seafood Processing
424460 Fish & Seafood Merchant Wholesalers
445220 Fish markets
487210 Scenic sightseeing water transportation
441222 Boat Dealers
483114 Coastal (Great Lakes) Passenger Transport
713930 Marinas & boat clubs
Source: EMSI 1st Quarter Employment statistics
3
Yr 2009
202
0
247
47
54
87
119
0
123
Yr 2010
197
0
266
48
59
92
121
0
131
% Change
-2%
⁄
8%
2%
9%
6%
2%
⁄
7%
Mobile County, AL Marine-Related
Jobs
114112 Shellfish Fishing
114111 Finfish fishing
311712 Fresh and Frozen Seafood Processing
424460 Fish & Seafood Merchant Wholesalers
445220 Fish markets
487210 Scenic sightseeing water transportation
441222 Boat Dealers
483114 Coastal (Great Lakes) Passenger Transport
713930 Marinas & boat clubs
Yr 2009
154
500
806
94
66
41
180
101
46
Yr 2010
126
474
798
67
60
45
184
106
50
% Change
-18%
-5%
-1%
-29%
-6%
10%
2%
5%
9%
Source: EMSI 1st Quarter Employment statistics
Tourism: According to Alabama’s Travel Economic Impact Report, a total of 21 million
travelers visited Alabama in 2009. In fact the Gulf Coast Region leads the state with 65%
of travelers choosing Baldwin, Jefferson, Madison, Mobile, and Montgomery as their
destination (2009) and with the largest total travel expenditures, travel-related earnings,
and travel-related employment for the state of Alabama (2009). See diagrams in
appendix.
In 2009 4.6 million guests visited Alabama’s Gulf Coast and spent $2.3 billion. In return
this produced 40,000 travel-related jobs and accounted for $915 million in wages and
salary (2009).
Recreational Fishing: Alabama’s coast, much like the state’s rich biodiversity, is home
to over 300 species of saltwater fish (Alabama Waterfront Access, 2010). Since
Alabama’s coast is a prime sport fishing destination, there were a total of 89,818
saltwater licenses for both resident and non-residents issued in 2007 (ADCNR).
Commercial Landings’ Trends
The richness and abundance attributed to coastal fisheries directly correlates to a healthy
ecosystem. Estuary-dependent organisms such as shrimp depend on quality estuaries for
breeding. Thus more shrimp equates to a greater return in dollar value. In fact, brown and
white shrimp alone account for 80 percent of Alabama’s commercial fishing revenue
(Mobile Bay NEP, 2008).
Since commercial fishing plays an important ecological and economic role in the Gulf
region, it vital to include commercial landings in the inventory. Furthermore, this report
takes into account landings and values’ trends. The graph below shows landings for all
species from 2000-2008. Additional landings and values for blue crab, oysters, and
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shrimp can be found on the official Marine Resources Assessment Web site at
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/marine-assessment/industry-impacts.php
Source: NOAA, NMFS Commercial Fishery Landings Data
Seafood Processing: Alabama has a total of 80+ seafood processor and wholesaler
establishments, which contribute the bulk of the Gulf Coast’s processing from Louisiana
and Mississippi (Walton, 2010). Below is a graph that depicts the poundage and values of
Alabama’s seafood processing from 2000-2008.
Source: NOAA NMFS, personal comm. 2010
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Concluding Remarks
As the Alabama Disaster Assistance Task Force moves forward with its economic
assessment, one will see the importance of this initial report which has broadly defined
the primary indicators showcasing Alabama's coastal economies. This inventory will lead
to in-depth assessment of the damages caused by the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon
Oil Spill. Next quarter’s report will determine baseline values for the indicators
mentioned in this study.
References
Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/SaltFishData.cfm, retrieved on May
27, 2010.
Alabama Tourism Department, Travel Economic Impact Report 2009,
http://www.alabama.travel, retrieved on August 26, 2010.
Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc., http://www.economicmodeling.com, retrieved on
July 10, 2010.
Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. State of Mobile Bay: A Status Report on
Alabama’s Coastline from the Delta to Our Coastal Waters, 2008.
NOAA Fisheries, NMFS
http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/pls/webpls/MF_GEAR_LANDINGS.RESULTS, retrieved
on May 26, 2010.
NOAA Fisheries, NMFS. Seafood Poundage and Values. Personal Communication on
August 12, 2010.
US Fish and Wildlife Service, http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/fhw06-al.pdf,
retrieved on June 25, 2010.
Walton, William. 2010. List of seafood processors and wholesalers. Unpublished.
Appendix
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EXPENDITURES BY ALABAMA TRAVEL
Source: Travelhttp://www.agccvb.org/stats/
About EMSI Data Sources and Calculations
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Input-Output Data
The input-output model in this report is created using the national Input-Output matrix
provided by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. This is combined with the
national Total Gross Output, the regional Total Gross Output, the land area of the subject
region, regional DIRT data and regional in/out commuter patterns in order to calculate
regional requirements, imports and exports.
The model uses matrix algebra to calculate the regional multiplier, the resulting matrix is
multiplied by the sales vector and converted back to jobs or earnings.
Specifically, this data comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
Economic Analysis, Industry Economic Accounts: Benchmark and Annual Input-Output
(I-O) Accounts.
Industry Data
In order to capture a complete picture of industry employment, EMSI basically combines
covered employment data from Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
produced by the Department of Labor with total employment data in Regional Economic
Information System (REIS) published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA),
augmented with County Business Patterns (CBP) and Non-employer Statistics (NES)
published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Projections are based on the latest available EMSI
industry data, 15-year past local trends in each industry, growth rates in statewide and
(where available) sub-state area industry projections published by individual state
agencies, and (in part) growth rates in national projections from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
State Data Sources
This report uses state data from the following agencies: Alabama Department of
Industrial Relations.
Quarterly Report Comments:
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Pre-developments Leading to Economic Inventory
Dr Terry Hanson and Ms Jeana Baker
This work, presented below, discusses our initial development via our Web site and
proceeds to show the essential components to our economic inventory for Baldwin and
Mobile Counties, Alabama.
We are accessing the damages associated with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill for
Baldwin and Mobile counties in the State of Alabama (and the Gulf in the Multi-state
proposal, though we will work with Alabama data and coordinate with other state marine
economists to be on the same page and using the same data). To accurately account for
Alabama’s coastal economic impacts, we assume a holistic approach that encompasses
the following methods: use of historical data collection, economic (input/output) impact
modeling, and surveys of specific sectors that will be determined.
I.
Historical Data Collection from NOAA Fisheries Statistics (NFMS) site.
1)
Industry Impacts
Alabama Commercial Fishing
Annual Commercial Landings + Values
Monthly Commercial Landings + Values
A) Shrimp Landings + values
B) Oyster Landings + values
C) Blue Crab Landings + values
2)
Seafood Related
A) Annual Processing volumes + values
B) Marine Aquaculture
3)
Recreational Fishing 2007 saltwater fishing licenses
II.
Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI ) using North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) and working with Amelia Stehouwer of AU’s
Economic Community Development Institute (ECDI).
In the model, we assumed a one-time impact, spanning 1 year using 2009 as our base
year. We let jobs = input and earnings = output for:
114112
114111
311712
424460
445220
487210
441222
483114
713930
Shellfish Fishing
Finfish fishing
Fresh and Frozen Seafood Processing
Fish & Seafood Merchant Wholesalers
Fish markets
Scenic sightseeing water transportation
Boat Dealers
Coastal (Great Lakes) Passenger Transport (?)
Marinas & boat clubs
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For the 9 industries we evaluated (below), a total of 5,238 jobs would be lost in the State
of Alabama.
IV.
Oil Spill Network (with whom we coordinated via teleconference and meetings)
Dr. Chuck Adams, Marine Economist, University of Florida
Dr. Gail Cramer, LSU Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics
Dr. Ben Posadas, Associate Extension/Research Professor of Economics, Mississippi
State University-Coastal Research and Extension Center
Drs Brian Richard and Chad Miller, Economists, University of Southern Mississippi
Mr. Patrick Rose, AU Center for Government Services (CGS)
Ms. Amelia Hall Stehouwer (M.PA), Research and Communications Specialist,
Economic Community Development Institute (ECDI), Auburn University and Extension
Dr. LaDon Swann, Director, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium
Dr. William Walton, Extension Specialist and Assistant Professor, Fisheries and Allied
Aquaculture, Auburn University
VI.
Creation of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture’s (FAA) Marine Resources
Assessment Web site: http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/marineassessment/index.php
Goal: To create a Web site disseminating graphs, maps, and facts related to the Gulf Oil
Spill and its effects on Alabamians. This information will be accessible to the Auburn
campus community, state/local governments, and the general public via Fisheries and
Allied Aquaculture’s (FAA) website and it will be linked to Auburn University’s oil spill
site.
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