Whatcom Economy: Job estimate studies can be useful

We at the Center for Economic and Business Research get asked frequently to prepare economic impact studies.

We inevitably ask ourselves whether the resulting job estimates are useful (should anyone care about the job estimates?) and whether they tend to be accurate. We think the answer to the first question is yes. Part of the reason we get the requests we do is because someone needs to know if the benefits of a given action, including the jobs that might be created, outweigh the costs that might be associated with the action. So what about the estimates — are they accurate?