Higher wages cure labor shortages continued
What to do about labor shortages (real or perceived) in the skilled trades/mid-skill jobs is a top economic priority for Governor Snyder. As we explored in our last post he is pushing for a reemphasis on vocation programming in high schools. And now has created a super agency––the Department of Talent and Economic Development. It […]
Higher wages cure labor shortages
Corporate and political leadership continue to complain about the inability to find workers in the skilled trades/mid-skill jobs. Their solution is to go back to tracking kids––almost certainly others, not theirs––into vocational programs. One problem: if there are labor shortages, and many doubt there is, the prime cause is not an education system that over […]
Good business climate, not so good economy continued
As we explored in my last post, Michigan is now a top tier state in ratings of business climate, but a lower tier state in what matters to Michiganders: jobs and income. For at least two decades we have been told by most policy makers and businesses that reducing the cost of doing business in […]
Good business climate, not so good economy
The well-respected Tax Foundation recently released their 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index report. Michigan is rated the 13th best business climate in the country. The same ranking Michigan had in 2013 and 2014. In 2012 the state ranked 27th. So on the measure we are told repeatedly by Lansing policy makers and the business […]
Needed: new state education policy
As we explored previously Michigan has lousy k-12 student outcomes and is making little progress if at all. A recipe for long term economic decline. The state which has the best student outcomes is Massachusetts. Massachusetts k-12 policy was put in place in the early 1990s on a bi-partisan basis and has been continued without much […]
Our New Agenda report revisited II
As we explored in my last post the analysis we did eight years ago for our A New Agenda for a New Michigan report has held up remarkably well. I think the same can be said for our agenda of what Michigan should do to return to prosperity. A status we had lost by 2006 […]
Our New Agenda report revisited
In June 2006 we published A New Agenda for a New Michigan. It laid out Michigan Future’s vision for a prosperous Michigan and strategy for realizing that vision. It has been the guide for all the work we have done since. In preparing for our next report I reread the New Agenda report and was […]