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employment growing by -728 jobs (i.e., -5 percent times the sector's base employment, 14,503, equals - 728 jobs). Overall, the national growth component was responsible for a total of -3,329 jobs in this county area. An understandable goal of some local leaders is to make their economy more 'recession proof'. Economies with more employment in government, military and education will experience less fluctuation because those sectors are not directly related to the business cycle. Also, economic sectors that are experiencing more growth will provide larger employment gains to a local economy. 2. The Industrial Mix Component Insight into these growing sectors is provided by the second aspect of the shift -share analysis, the industrial mix component. This component is found by calculating the percent growth rate for an economic sector at the national level and subtracting from it the national growth component. Thus, the industrial mix component measures how well an industry has grown, net of effects from the business cycle. Table 2 lists these components for each sector. The highest industrial mix component was 8.7 percent in the Education and Health Services sector, and it was responsible for 1256 jobs (i.e., 8.7 percent times this sector's base employment, 14,503, equals 1256 jobs). If this area's employment were concentrated in these sectors with higher industrial mix components, then the area could expect more employment growth. After adding up across all eleven sectors, it appears that the industrial mix component was responsible for decreasing the area employment by -209 jobs. Thus, the area has a concentration of employment in industries that are decreasing nation -wide, in terms of employment. The majority of these jobs can be attributed to decreases in the Construction sector. Shift -share analysis does not explain why an economic sector has slower or faster growth. Rather, the local development official must use knowledge about the business conditions facing particular industries to understand this. 3. The Competitive Share The third and final component of shift -share analysis is called the competitive share. It is the remaining employment change that is left over after accounting for the national and industrial mix components. If a sector's competitive share is positive, then the sector has a local advantage in promoting employment growth. For example, the Education and Health Services sector employment grew by 3.6 percent (from Table 1). Of this 3.6 percent, -5 percent was due to the national growth component and 8.7 percent was due to the industrial mix (from Table 2). This leaves a remainder of 0 percent that is attributable to the local As reported in Table 2, this area's biggest employer, the Education and Health Services sector, had the highest national growth component. The -5 percent national growth component led to this sector's