Updated B.A. earnings premium for 25-34 year olds
2018 work earnings data are now available from the Current Population Survey. What follows is an update of an earlier post now with 2018 data. The story we are told over and over again is for today’s students getting a four-year degree is no longer a good value for many. It may have been for […]
A capitalist calls for a new capitalism
Salesforce chairman and co-C.E.O Marc Benioff in a New York Times op ed entitled We Need a New Capitalism becomes another capitalist advocating for big changes in American capitalism. He writes: To my fellow business leaders and billionaires, I say that we can no longer wash our hands of our responsibility or what people do […]
Cities and universities drive economic growth
Crain’s Chad Livengood begins his story on the new University of Michigan Detroit Center for Innovation this way: Across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, Virginia Tech is developing a 1 million-square-foot innovation campus in Alexandria, Va., that’s two Metro commuter train stops away from the second North American headquarters Amazon is building. In […]
Governor Whitmer focuses on reducing ALICE
Governor Whitmer framed her announcements of expanding access to food assistance, cash assistance and State Emergency Relief and to increase the number of workers eligible for overtime pay in terms of helping Michigan’s ALICE households. This is exactly the approach to economic policy that Michigan most needs now. One that is focused on raising household […]
The nature of work today and tomorrow
I recently gave a speech at the Michigan Works Annual Conference on the future of work. It explores how the nature of work is likely to change largely because of automation. You can read the speech here. The speech does not predict a looming apocalypse. With not enough jobs for those who want and need […]
A liberal arts degree leads to a good-paying career
We are constantly besieged with messaging that a liberal arts degree is useless. Maybe even worse than useless: a path to being a pauper or something close. Stuck in low-paying work that leaves you unable to pay off the loans and earn enough to buy a house and raise a family. Think again! In a […]
Young professionals concentrating in big cities
More than a decade ago we identified four common characteristics of high-prosperity non-energy-driven states: Over concentrated in knowledge-based services which are the sectors of the economy both growing and high wage High proportion of adults with a four-year degree or more Even higher college attainment in the state’s big metro(s) In those big metros a […]
The myth of six-figure welders
We first wrote about welders in 2013. Its a topic we keep coming back to, most recently in a 2018 post entitled What skilled trades job actually pay. The reason why we keep writing about welders is they have become Exhibit One for the case why others’ kids don’t need to get a four-year degree […]
College entrance exams and college admission
Paul Tough’s excellent new book The Years That Matter Most explores how college entrance exams––SAT and ACT––impact who gets admitted to college. He does it by comparing the impact of college entrance exams on both admissions and college success to high school GPA. The bottom line is that college entrance exams advantage male, affluent, white […]
Talent attracts capital
In preparing presentations about our placemaking recommendations what has struck me is that the key message can be summed up in three words: talent attracts capital. Where talent means primarily those with a four-year degree or more. What the most prosperous non-energy-driven states and regions have most in common is a high proportion of their […]