Produce Statistical Output Report

Produce Statistical Output Report Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Produce Statistical Output Report Abstract Various aspects of physical geography or location factors often determine the appropriate site for installation of high tech manufacturing firms. Climate, land, labor, transport, communication, housing, and government interference are examples of such facets. Some of these factors vary from place to place. The purpose of this paper is to verify or falsify if Alabama can support high tech manufacturing firms. The main data available is courtesy of the US Census Bureau and also from the US Patent and Trademark Office. The data depicts the number of employees, location quotient, patent, total capital expenditures, specializations, and the number of establishments. The variables under consideration are the number of employees (labor), capital expenditure (total cost or amount that the region charges for investment), total patents issued and the number of establishments (branches of the main firm or agglomeration). A multi-linear regression is used to show the relationship of these variables to each other and to the yield of the equation. Keywords: High tech manufacturing firms, economic census, firms, US Census Bureau, Smart Access, agglomeration, metropolitan, regression model, nonresponse, Greenfields, theorists, California, incentives, San Jose, Alabama, biotechnology, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and micropolitan. 1 Introduction Over the last five decades, high tech manufacturing firms have significantly developed in the USA. The country’s economy has had to depend on technology for its growth. Basically, any good business runs on the internet in the modern world today. The US economy (the world economic powerhouse) comprises of service, manufacturing and agricultural sectors. The manufacturing sector has 18 industries that transform raw materials into goods for commercial and household use. These goods are often in mechanical, physical or chemical form. This sector uses power-driven machines and equipment. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.6% of US economic output as of 2018 was due to manufacturing. In fact, it led to the employment of 8.5% of the country’s workforce. The 12.75 manufacturing jobs pay 12% more than all other jobs with workers enjoying benefits and $40.79 per hour. Among the 18 manufacturing industries, the high tech manufacturing firms, particularly, use technology to produce both personal and commercial computer products. They belong to the quaternary sector. A few examples to name are Compaq, Intel, and NEC. Notably, such companies are responsible for the production of elements that make computers run. These elements comprise of software, internet, fiber optics cables, medical instruments, biotechnology, electron tubes, motherboards, capacitors, etc. In addition, the firms produce all machinery used for the creation of the elements earlier mentioned. High tech manufacturing firms use manual labor and extensive laser engineering in forming, casting, molding and machining. Casting is applied when some parts of the industry use raw materials to make parts that would have otherwise been imported. Those imported from firms in other countries are often at a much low price. By definition, high tech manufacturing firms are driven by innovations and new technology. Therefore, these firms are highly dynamic since they create technology that is highly dependent on the modern world. A geographical region that can support high tech manufacturing firms may have the following: * High-quality leisure amenities e.g. nature parks, golf courses, recreational sites for stressed scientists during off-days. * Ready labor i.e. to recruit and maintain the highly skilled engineers, technicians, machine operators, and scientists. These employees are highly selective about where they will work and live. Preferably, such a place should be close to work to avoid long driving hours to and fro work. * Low cost of the site or cheap land in terms of low rent or lease, mortgage or with a perfect offer of the site or building on sale. * Incentives offered by authorities such as grants and tax exemptions. * Attractive location i.e. great landscape and view, good affordable housing, good climate. * Excellent infrastructure e.g. well-tarmacked roads and easy access to work and government financial offices, high network connectivity for communication. High tech manufacturing firms are also called footloose industries because they are not tied to any particular location. They are market-oriented and common to find in urban areas. New high tech companies set up in areas where others are. This way, they can share ideas, workers, resources, etc. They motivate clustering and agglomeration via links with suppliers and services as research institutions and spark start-ups from existing incubator firms. There has to be an available site for expansion so that the industry grows directly proportional to the size of firms. Greenfields sites are common for the location due to lower land rents. As mentioned earlier, high tech industries deal with imports and exports of goods. Consequently, they need to be accessible. In case of relocation, those that demand high inputs of information, expertise, and extensive research are free to move to areas of maximum profits. USA’s tech-cities are topped by the famous San Jose metro; the heart of Silicon Valley. On ranking, the first 25 top tech hubs in the USA are: 1 San Jose, CA 2 San Francisco, CA 3 Washington, DC 4 Boston, MA 5 Raleigh-Durham, NC 6 Seattle, WA 7 Austin, TX 8 Denver/Boulder, CO 9 San Diego, CA 10 Madison, WI Minneapolis, MN Baltimore Oakland, CA Portland, OR New York City, NY Chicago, IL Atlanta, GA Los Angeles, CA Columbus, OH Orange County, CA Dallas, TX Kansas City, MO Indianapolis, IN Salt Lake City, UT Nashville, TN. We do not wish to rank the regions (high tech cities) according to popularity by another researcher’s work. Instead, we will look in depth on how each region varies from the other since some are highly high tech populated than others. Below is a map showing how the top 25 high tech firms are distributed over the USA. Figure 1.1 1 Literature Review Overview Alabama alias ‘The Heart of Dixie’, houses Huntsville in Madison County, a city with major economic development. Huntsville has local and foreign corporations exceeding 300 present in the area. The corporations produce electronics, computer-related technology, technology hardware, sensors and radars used in advanced missiles (Made in Alabama, n.d.). The jobs there range from help desk support, information technology specialist to systems specialist but the most common ones are software and system engineering (Underwood, 2017). The establishment of the Facebook $750 million data center whose role is storing, processing and customized for data needs in May 2018, was based on Huntsville’s ready land, great infrastructure, skilled and available labor, pro-business atmosphere, waived permitting fees by the council and affordable quality life (Made in Alabama, n.d.). Besides that, the Talladega-Sylacauga Micropolitan area was ranked by Smart Access among the 438 metro areas, as the best place to work in manufacturing firms in the US (Underwood, 2017). The presence of high ready labor, high paying jobs, affordable average housing costs, and 93,000 population count are the contributing factors to its success. With more than 260,000 manufacturing workers in Alabama, this translates to above 13% of the states’ workers share (Cargill & O’Connor, 2013). High tech companies in Alabama are known for modeling, simulation technologies, cybersecurity, and data centers. Dynamic Mechanism of High Tech industries in Alabama Innovation With a growth of 309% rate, Huntsville was ranked top of the list for annual job growth in the technology industry by ZipRecruiter’s recent study. Cathy Barrera, the study’s chief economic adviser termed the city a dark horse in the tech industry for the past few years. She further explained that it’s the best place for engineers and its main success lies on its relatively low cost of living and high average salaries in tech jobs. Besides, NASA’s presence is largely felt in the city. Huntsville main areas of growth, according to Lucia Cape (the city’s economic and development, industry relations and workforce vice president), software development, electrical engineering, and computer science (Underwood, 2017). A 2014 Bloomberg analysis quoted that about 16.7% of the labor force are in STEM. Growth Alabama State is famous due to Huntsville from way back in the 1950s from where rockets were sent into orbit and put on the moon. The same decade saw a group of rocket scientists terms it as a watercress capital of the world (Academic Journals and Academic Publishing). Today, it is a technology hub with the second best country’s research center and US Space and Rocket Centre. Additionally, it houses the world’s first genomic medical clinic. Blue Origin and Aerojet Rocket dyne recently informed of plans to make a BE-4 engine and relocate fully to Huntsville in the next 2 years. Majority of employers are US Army then NASA, city hospital, school system, and Boeing (Underwood, 2017). The launch of Gig City has enabled many to work from home via access fiber internet. The high-quality life, attractive amenities, quality infrastructure, and tech-savvy workforce are the main reasons for its rise as a tech city. 2 Methodology Location factors can be categorized into two divisions: geographical and non-geographical factors. Descriptively, socio-economic are non-geographic factors and they include:- * Capital * Communication * Government policy * Labor supply * Markets Meanwhile, physical factors are also geographic factors; * Physical land * Raw materials * Climate Conceptual Framework: This diagram illustrates the basic locational factors for industries. Figure 1.2 In conclusion to the above, each factor has a significance in determining if a certain area can support a high tech firm. For example, * Capital: high tech industries need the most capital. * Raw materials: industrialists will often choose locations that are close to the raw materials or that have a low cost of purchase and transport. High tech fi...