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The University of Florida series, Measuring University Performance, will continue with the issue of August 1, 1996. Future issues will take up additional topics reflecting the university's commitment to measuring university performance in quality and productivity of research, teaching, extension, and service.

All of us at the University of Florida welcome comments and suggestions prompted by this series. Please write to the Office of Institutional Planning and Research, PO Box 113115, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-3115 (ufdata@aa.ufl.edu).

Universities produce students, research, service, clinical care, and extension activities, and as they go about these fundamental activities they also produce jobs. Like any substantial business enterprise, the university generates employment as faculty and staff gather to do the work of the institution. Funded less than one-third by state appropriations and more than two-thirds by the sale of goods and services, research universities serve their communities as engines of economic prosperity. Universities create jobs at all levels of compensation from relatively modest positions and hourly workers to highly compensated faculty and professional staff. In addition, universities generate derived employment throughout the communities that serve faculty, staff, and especially the students. In this paper, we look only at the direct employment generated by the University of Florida and its affiliates in this immediate area and throughout the state.

The definition of employee offers some challenges. Clearly the faculty and staff of the university belong in this analysis, but so too do hourly workers and temporary personnel. Students pose an additional complication. On one side, they are customers of the university, paying a fee to attend and learn. On the other side, they are similar to employees of the university because the state pays for about seventy-five percent of the cost of their education. They are also like employees because they come to the community and live here while attending the university, and while here, they buy and rent housing, purchase a substantial amount of goods and services, vote in elections, and in other ways act like other employees of the university. However, for the purposes of this analysis, we have decided to exclude students from the employee category unless they hold a compensated job with the university or one of its affiliates. This will understate the direct economic impact of the institution on its communities, but we will explore the student economy in a future issue of Measuring University Performance.

The University of Florida and Its Affiliates

The university consists of the main campus in Gainesville and academic centers located throughout the state serving populations in 99 communities in all 67 counties. These centers range from the academic campus of the Health Sciences Center at Jacksonville, the engineering graduate program at Eglin Air Force Base, the citrus research and education center in Lake Alfred, the cooperative program in Horticulture with Edison Community College in Ft. Myers, to the New World School of the Arts in Miami. The university's affiliates include the Shands Hospitals with locations in 24 counties, the University Athletic Association, the University of Florida Foundation, the Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. and other units located in Gainesville and elsewhere in the state. The map below locates the university's facilities throughout the state.

Total Employment

Although the total employment of the university varies from day to day and week to week with part time and hourly employees, taken at one point in time, the total employment of the university and its affiliates reaches 28,600 individuals throughout the state of Florida. With an aggregate operating budget of approximately $1.5 billion, the university ranks as one of the state of Florida's largest enterprises. The university, of course, provides services as its principal mission and spends about 80% of it s revenue on the people who provide the services. These people live and work in and contribute to the economic vitality of their communities.

The map above illustrates the distribution of University of Florida and affiliate employees throughout the state of Florida. Naturally, the largest concentration of employees exists in Gainesville-Alachua County, but substantial numbers of employees appear in many other locations throughout the state.

The economic impact of the compensation received by these employees on their counties is considerable as shown in the map below.

Gainesville-Alachua County

In the local area around the main campus of the university, employees of the university represent a substantial proportion of the local population. The university and its affiliates have the largest group of employees in Alachua County, ranking well above the next largest employer, which is the School Board of Alachua County, with approximately 4,000 employees. This number understates the direct economic impact of the university because it does not include the 40,000 students except as the university or its affiliates employs them.

These employees live throughout the greater Gainesville-Alachua County area. While many employees live in the expanding areas of the county west and northwest towards I-75, a substantial number of employees live in the area east of 13th Street, in the portion of Gainesville defined as an economic opportunity zone, and many employees also live in the area east of Main and also east of Waldo Road, as the map above indicates.

The widespread distribution of employees throughout the greater Gainesville-Alachua County area indicates the significance of changes in university and affiliate employment patterns. The following map shows the dollars contributed to the local community by compensation received by University of Florida employees. Most economists estimate the multiplier of an employee's compensation for economic impact on the community at about three times the salary. Clearly, then, university employees, wherever they are in the city, county, or state contribute substantially to the economic well being of their communities.

Employment has other impacts as well. While the direct economic benefits of employment enhance the community's economic prosperity, the indirect benefits contribute as well. A substantial majority of university and affiliate employees receive medical and other fringe benefits that support their quality of life and, incidentally, support the economic activities of the region's various health care providers. Many employees have strong retirement plans, and many choose to stay in the community after retirement, again contributing to the economic vitality of the Gainesville-Alachua County region.

However we look at the activities of the university and its affiliates, it is clear that one of the major direct benefits of any university to its community is the employment opportunity it provides to the citizens of that community and the economic prosperity that comes from the activities of these employees.

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