North American Clusters
In this Spotlight on North American Clusters, the Scorecard on
Prosperity 2012 investigates ten industrial aggregations that are
critical to
Toronto's economy.
These clusters of economic activity provide significant employment in
Toronto, and, as will be demonstrated, in most of the metro areas in the
U.S. and Canada - of course, in varying degrees.
Toronto is benchmarked against 11 other North American metro areas
according to five indicators that provide information on the strength
and size of each cluster.
The analysis rests on the historical performance of these clusters
during the past decade for each of the 12 North American metro areas,
drawing on the benchmarking results as well as recent literature in the
field.
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cluster below to learn more:
Benchmarking of the ten clusters is based on
five indicators:
1. Real GDP growth, averaged annually over the period from 2002-10.
2. Real productivity growth, averaged annually over the period from
2002-10.
3. Output concentration, measured as the cluster's real GDP share in the
total output of the CMA relative to the same cluster share on a North
American wide basis. A number greater than one indicates that real GDP
in the cluster is more concentrated in the CMA than in North America as
a whole.
4. Employment concentration, measured as the cluster's employment share
in the total employment of the CMA relative to the same cluster share on
a North American wide basis. A number greater than one indicates that
employment in the cluster is more concentrated in the CMA than in North
America as a whole.
5. Firm density, measured as the number of firms per capita in the CMA
divided by the total number of firms per capita in North America. A
number greater than one indicates that there is a higher concentration
of firms in the CMA than for North America, and hence, a higher number
of potential incubator firms to help the cluster grow.
