Economic & Community Impact Analysis

1.1 - Summary of Results

The following discussion details the economic ripple effect that HSU has on the Humboldt County region in terms of employment, labor income, and industry activity. ICF analyzed HSU’s five spending categories including University operational, auxiliary, and capital expenditures, student spending, and alumni impact.

To gain a better understanding of the drivers of impact, the results include a separate discussion for University expenditures (which includes operational, auxiliary and capital expenditures), student spending, and alumni activity. The combined impact of University expenditures and student spending are referred to as the core HSU impacts.

Table 1 presents the total economic impact of HSU’s university spending, student spending and the impact of alumni activity in the region. In total, HSU-related activity supports 6,240 jobs and generates more than $180 million in labor income. HSU is the largest employer in Humboldt County, and one of only three employers with over 1,000 employees.24 25 HSU supports more than 10% of total regional employment.26 This activity drives a substantial amount of industry activity- more than $567 million throughout the region. HSU also generated upwards of $38 million in state and local tax revenue, or approximately $4,914 tax dollars per enrolled student.27

Table 1: Summary of HSU’s Economic Impact on the Region

Source: IMPLAN analysis. Note, numbers may not sum due to rounding. All output values are in 2018 dollars

The university operating budget accounts for more than half of the total employment impact, while alumni spending generates the majority of state and local tax revenue.