Winning in the 21st Century: Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia quite literally won economically in the 21st Century when Amazon chose them as the location for one of two HQ2s. Winning what was described by pundits as the Super Bowl of economic development competitions. HQ2 brings to Northern Virginia a commitment for 25,000 jobs with an average salary of $150,000. (Amazon also chose […]
Winning in the 21st Century: Denver
One can make a strong argument that Denver is the American region that has understood best the new reality that talent attracts capital. And because it has Denver is one of the regions best positioned to win economically in the 21st Century. In 2007 the Downtown Denver Partnership published its strategic vision, designed to make […]
The pandemic is hardening our two-tier economy
The pandemic is hardening our two-tier economy. One where those at the top are doing well, but way too many Michiganders are struggling. Low-wage workers have suffered the most since the onset of the pandemic and the forecast is that reality will last for years. This repeats the experience during and after the Great Recession. […]
Winning in the 21st Century: Austin
Austin Texas voters just voted to raise property taxes to pay for the operations and maintenance of Project Connect, a high-capacity $7.1 billion transit system expansion. Project Connect is highlighted by a new light rail system with 27 miles of service and 31 stations. It also includes a transit tunnel under downtown (think subway); four […]
What are and how to teach 21st century skills
A little more than a year ago the Grand Rapids Public Museum hosted Outsmarting the Robots: Redesigning education from the classroom to the halls of Lansing. The conference was organized around the question “how do we redesign our system for learning to build the 21st century skills that matter to meeting the needs of our […]
The preeminent path to good-paying careers
The preeminent path to good-paying careers looks more like rock climbing than climbing a career ladder. More ad hoc and non linear than predictable and linear. What makes successful careers for most of us are our second and third jobs, not our first. And second and third job skills tend to be very different than […]
Six-figure jobs by education attainment
The oft-repeated case for you don’t need to go to college is almost always anchored by the claim that there are plenty of six-figure jobs available to young workers who do not have a four-year degree. The story goes that others’ kids should forgo pursuing a four-year degree because some so-called professional trade is paying […]
Kent County’s welcoming to all plan
Michigan Future’s core work, since our founding nearly three decades ago, has been laying out how Michigan could once again be a high-prosperity state––a place with a broad middle class––in an economy being transformed by globalization and technology. The bottom line of our decades of research can be summarized in three words: talent attracts capital. […]
Imaging the post-pandemic big city
In two recent posts (here and here) we have explored why the demise of big cities due to the pandemic is unlikely to happen. That American history is full of predictions of the death of the city which have always been wrong. Why? First concentrated talent working face to face significantly boosts productivity. So employers––particularly […]
Google and our education caste system
Google, with much fanfare, recently announced “three new Google Career Certificates in the high-paying, high-growth career fields of Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience (UX) Design. Like our IT Support and Automation in Python Certificates, these new career programs are designed and taught by Google employees who work in these fields.” They further announced […]