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| Missouri Economic Research and Information Center | |
|---|---|
| Name | Missouri Economic Research and Information Center |
| Formation | 1980s |
| Headquarters | Jefferson City, Missouri |
| Parent organization | Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development |
Missouri Economic Research and Information Center
The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center is a state-level research office that produces labor market, demographic and statistical information for Missouri public policy, workforce development and business decision-making. It serves as a liaison between executive agencies such as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and legislative bodies including the Missouri General Assembly, while supporting programs administered by entities like the Missouri Division of Employment Security and the Missouri Department of Transportation. The center’s work informs planning by local governments in St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, Springfield, Missouri and rural counties across the state.
The office traces its origins to state workforce initiatives in the 1980s that paralleled federal efforts at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, and Employment and Training Administration. Early collaborations involved data exchanges with the Missouri Department of Revenue, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and regional planning commissions such as the Mid-America Regional Council and the Ozarks Transportation Organization. During the 1990s and 2000s it expanded output in response to legislation from the United States Congress and directives from governors including John Ashcroft and Mel Carnahan, aligning activities with programs at the National Center for Education Statistics and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Administratively placed within a state agency tied to the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development, the center reports to appointed directors and coordinates with the Office of Administration (Missouri), the Missouri State Auditor and the Missouri Office of Administration. Governance structures reflect interagency memoranda with the Missouri Economic Development Council, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and federal partners like the Department of Labor (United States). Staff roles include economists, statisticians and analysts with academic links to universities such as the University of Missouri, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri State University and Southeast Missouri State University.
Core services include production of occupational employment statistics, unemployment measures, and regional profiles used by the Missouri Department of Corrections, Missouri Veterans Commission and local workforce boards. The center supplies information for grant applications to agencies like the Economic Development Administration, technical assistance for Small Business Administration programs, and labor force projections for institutions such as Missouri Western State University and Truman State University. Outreach includes presentations to bodies like the Kansas City Council, St. Louis County Council and regional development districts including the Boonslick Regional Planning Commission.
Published outputs include county and metropolitan statistical area reports framed around definitions from the Office of Management and Budget, benchmarked to the Decennial Census and the American Community Survey. Regular publications mirror standards from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Missouri Economic Development Council, offering datasets used by researchers at institutions such as Saint Louis University and Drury University. The center’s workforce projections, occupational wage data and industry employment series inform policy debates at the Missouri State Capitol, filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and analyses by think tanks like the Pew Research Center.
Analytic methods incorporate time series techniques prominent at the Federal Reserve Board, input-output modeling used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and microsimulation approaches familiar to the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. Sources include administrative records from the Missouri Department of Social Services, payroll data linked to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and survey data comparable to instruments from the Current Population Survey. Peer collaboration has been established with academic centers such as the Show-Me Institute and research units at the University of Missouri System.
The center partners with federal entities like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education, regional councils such as the Mid-America Regional Council and workforce boards including Workforce Development Board of Western Missouri. It engages employers represented by the Missouri Retailers Association, community colleges such as St. Louis Community College and economic development organizations like Greater St. Louis, Inc. and KC SmartPort. Stakeholder feedback mechanisms include briefings for the Missouri Senate and Missouri House of Representatives committees, technical workshops with the Missouri Association of Counties and data-sharing agreements with the Social Security Administration.
The center’s outputs are widely used in planning by municipal governments in Columbia, Missouri, Jefferson City, Missouri and regional authorities, and cited in analyses by media outlets such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Kansas City Star. Criticisms have arisen regarding lagged data revisions similar to debates at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and concerns about geographic granularity raised by researchers at institutions like the Mercatus Center and the Cato Institute. Debates over transparency and methodology echo broader discussions involving the National Academy of Sciences and the Government Accountability Office.