NewsRelease

GREENSBORO – By any calculation, half a billion dollars is a huge chunk of economic activity in any region’s economy – and that’s what The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s presence contributes to the Piedmont Triad.

A recent study shows that the University generates economic activity totaling $588 million for the eight-county Piedmont Triad region, and $541 million in Guilford County. These figures include additional generated household income of $171 million in the Triad and $124 million in Guilford County.

The campus also generates 6,439 additional jobs in Guilford County and 7,792 jobs in the Triad, which includes Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Randolph, Stokes and Yadkin counties in the Triad Metropolitan Statistical Area.

“UNCG has always been an economic engine in Guilford County and the Triad, but this study allows us to say with accuracy just how deep our impact is,” said Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan. “Our campus is doing this in addition to providing strong cultural leadership and superior learning opportunities at the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

The study looks at UNCG as a big purchaser of goods and services, a major employer and a catalyst for spending by students and visitors. Like universities everywhere, UNCG injects large amounts of cash into the local and regional economy.

In the study, spending figures by UNCG and its employees, and calculated estimates on spending by students and visitors, are used to calculate the impact on the region’s economy. This total economic impact is calculated by looking at re-circulation of spending by UNCG in the local and regional economies.

The Economic Impact of UNCG was prepared by Dr. Andrew Brod, director of the Office of Business and Economic Research in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNCG, and Richard Howarth, a graduate student in the school. The report uses a multiplier analysis called the Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II), which was developed by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“While it is generally well-known that universities play a huge role in the productivity, innovation and standard of living of an economy, the day-to-day operations of a university also have an impact on the local and regional economy,” said Brod. “In this report, we calculated conservative, lower-bound estimates of the economic impact of UNCG on the region’s economy. The true impact is likely to be higher, due to the conservative nature of our methodology and the presence of hard-to-measure factors that we needed to exclude from the analysis.”

Two categories in the study, university purchasing and wages earned by staff and faculty, totaled $203.7 million and represent direct spending by UNCG.
Two other categories, the estimated expenditures by students and visitors, totaling $130.1 million, occur because of UNCG’s presence in the area.

The four areas have a combined total of approximately $333.6 million. A breakdown of each category shows the following:

•  Expenditures – All purchasing and spending, totaling $103.8 million, such as supplies, materials, services, fixed charges, construction and capital outlay.  UNCG does business with more than 11,000 vendors. The  $103.8 million in expenditures had a total economic impact of $175.3 million in the Triad and $163.2 million in Guilford County. It generated an additional $58.3 million in household income in the Triad ($43.8 million in Guilford County), along with   including 2,272 jobs in the Triad and 1,708 in Guilford County.

 
• Wages – Salaries totaling $99.9 million, paid directly to UNCG’s 671 full-time faculty, 208 part-time faculty and 1,370 staff members. Of the employees, 91 percent live in Guilford County and another 6 percent live in the Triad’s eight counties. The $99.9 million generated $199 million in economic activity in the Triad ($163 million in Guilford County), $61.5 million in additional earnings in the Triad ($42 million in additional earnings in Guilford County), and 2,981 jobs in the Triad (2,784 in Guilford County).

 
• Student spending – All expenses incurred by UNCG’s more than 13,000 students, estimated at $126.6 million, such as books and supplies, rent, food, transportation and miscellaneous expenses, not including tuition and fees paid directly to UNCG. The $126.6 million generates economic activity of $208.1 million in the Triad ($198.1 million in Guilford County), an earnings impact of  $50 million in the Triad  ($37 million in Guilford County), and 2,433 jobs in the Triad (1,861 jobs in Guilford County).

 
• Visitor spending – Visitor spending, estimated at $3.5 million, including hotels, restaurants, recreation, retail and transportation. The $3.5 million accounts for total economic activity of $6.5 million in the Triad ($6.1 million in Guilford County), additional earnings of $1.6 million in the Triad ($1.5 million in Guilford County), and 106 jobs in the Triad  (86 jobs in Guilford County).

“A university is, of course, much more than just a consumer; it also represents an investment in the future, in people and institutions and technology,” said Brod. “There are several things we didn’t examine that are intrinsic to any university’s presence in a community, and to its economic impact.”

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