As we explored in my last post Michigan structurally has too many low-paid jobs. About half of Michigan jobs pay less than $15 an hour. Add to that lots of part-time jobs and more and more contingent jobs. That leads…
A recent Washington Post article was entitled Half the jobs in America pay less than $18 an hour. Can Trump help? The consequence of way too many lower paid jobs––as well as too many working in part-time jobs––is you get lots of…
George Anders new book, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education, is worth reading. The book tells the story of how liberal arts majors––no matter what the conventional wisdom––are putting together successful forty-year careers.…
Conventional wisdom is that one of the main culprits in the so-called skill shortage is that all Michigan kids are being pushed to get a four-year degree. I am quite skeptical that that is accurate. (See this New York Times…
Terrific Dustin Walsh column in Crain's Detroit Business entitled Businesses have key to labor shortage — higher wages. This is a position we have laid out many times before (see here) that markets solve supply and demand imbalances through price. In the…
Summit charter schools in California and Washington state are often included on the list of charter networks that are getting big urban student achievement gains. A common characteristic of these networks is their commitment that their students will graduate…
The most important recommendation in our new state policy agenda is that we change the mission of state economic policy to a rising household income for all. A Michigan with a broad middle class where wages and benefits allows…
The story that taking out student loans is a path to pauperdom rather than prosperity dominates the public conversation. One problem: its wrong. As we have covered repeatedly (see here and here) getting a four-year degree, even with student loans,…
We have written frequently (most recently here and here) about Pittsburgh as Exhibit A for how so-called Rust Belt regions can return to prosperity. The basic recipe: make the transition from a factory-driven to a knowledge-driven economy largely by retaining…
The table below displays changes in employment nationally by the minimum education requirement for occupations as calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor. Its the same database we wrote about in our exploration of the reality of good-paying jobs that…