2017 Spencer Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Spencer, Iowa  2017  Comprehensive Plan

The Iowa Workforce Development compiles data on current wage levels for several occupations and industries. Unfortunately, the following wage and salary data is only reported for Iowa Workforce regions across the state, and does not report at the county or city level. However, the regional workforce data provides an indication of typical wages and earnings represented in Spencer.

Table 14 - Iowa Workforce Development Wage Survey for Region 3-4 Iowa Workforce Region, 2017

Occupation Description

2016 Mean Salary

Occupation Description

2016 Mean Salary

Management Occupations

$76,766 $53,056 $58,908 $56,116 $52,376 $39,822 $57,799 $40,050 $33,422 $64,698 $27,039

Protective & Safety Services

$39,363 $19,380 $24,216 $22,883 $32,494 $32,079 $35,497 $39,371 $41,255 $33,249 $33,796

Business & Finance (Accountants)

Food Preparation and Serving

Computer Operations

Building & Grounds Maintenance

Architecture & Engineering

Personal Care/Service Occupations

Life, Physical & Social Science

Sales and Related Occupations

Community and Social Services

Office and Administrative Support

Legal Occupations

Farming, Fishing & Forestry Construction and Extraction

Education, Training & Library

Art, Entertainment & Sports

Installation, Maintenance & Repair

Healthcare Practitioners & Technical

Production Occupations

Healthcare Support

Transportation & Moving

RETAIL TRADE ANALYSIS Informative retail trade data and trends are available from the Iowa State University Extension, Regional Capacity Analysis Program or ReCAP. This information may help explain retail employment gains or losses over the last decade. Characteristics of retail activity are often indicative of the overall economic vitality of a community. The data presented in this retail trade analysis compares retail trade sales data for the City of Spencer, neighboring cities in Clay County and cities of comparable size in Northwest Iowa. The table below shows historic retail sales data for Spencer over a 34-year period between 1980 and 2014. This is done so historical comparisons can be made between the value of the dollar today as compared to sales in the community 20 or 30 years ago. It is interesting to note that while actual retail sales increased continually over this period, the number of retail firms remained constant until a decrease over the past 5 years.

Table 15 - Number of Retail Firms v. Constant Sales per Firm, Spencer

Year

FY 1980

FY 1990

FY 2000

FY 2010

FY 2016

Total Retail Sales ($ Millions) Constant Dollars ($ Millions)

$95.07

$112.26 $184.07

$187.75 $247.11

$241.87 $258.86

$284.92 $284.92

$245.78

Number of Firms

487

498

531

574

530

Average Sales Per Firm Average Sales Per Capita

$195,216 $225,421 $353,574 $421,370 $538,098

$8,108

$10,145

$16,590

$21,532

$25,483

The data presented below provides an overview of recent economic activity and retail trade occurring in Spencer. Specifically, this data identifies the city’s retail trade trends since 2010. The subsequent graph shows total retail sales in Spencer for a 10-year period from 2007-2016.

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NW Iowa Planning & Development