Another technologist moves away from recommending STEM
Vivek Wadhwa is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering at Silicon Valley. He researches exponentially advancing technologies that are soon going to change our world. And yet he has moved away from recommending STEM as the path to successful careers. In a Washington Post column entitled Why the […]
Placemaking lessons from Ford and Minneapolis
The New York Times recently wrote about Ford’s purchase of the long-abandoned Detroit train station. The article’s subtitle is what matters: By renovating a symbol of the city’s decline, the company hopes to create a magnet for the talent needed to prevail in the next automotive era. Ford has learned the lesson that far too many […]
Our new metro Minneapolis case study
Last year we published our first-ever state policy recommendations. Our motivation for doing so is a sense of urgency that across the political spectrum we need a different set of policy options. Ideas not about how we can turn the clock back and make the old economy work again, but rather ideas about how we can […]
What skilled trades jobs actually pay updated
Our second most read post recently is a 2016 post on what skilled trades jobs pay. I wrote the 2016 post because I was then––and am now––skeptical of the claims about the number of jobs and pay in the traditional blue collar trades. Given the interest in the topic here are updated data for those occupations. And […]
Michigan getting poorer
The Michigan Association of United Way’s ALICE report is the best calculation of the proportion of Michigan households that cannot afford basic necessities. That 40 percent of Michigan households––in a strong economy––can’t pay for basic necessities should be sending off alarm bells among policymakers that the Michigan economy is leaving far too many Michiganders behind. […]
The economic debate we should be having in the 2018 election
The preeminent challenge of our times is figuring out how to reverse what is being called the Great Decoupling. Where even when the economy is growing––as it has been in Michigan since the end of the Great Recession––only those at the top are benefiting from that growth. The policy priority needs to be reestablishing an […]
Google, Business Leaders for Michigan and standardized tests
As we explored in my Google finds that STEM aren’t the most important skills post, Google determined that “the seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being […]
Stop whining, raise wages
So says Neel Kashkari, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Specifically Business North reports he said in a recent speech: “Almost everywhere I go, businesses tell me they can’t find workers. I always ask them the same question: ‘Are you raising wages?’ Usually, the answer is ‘no.’ When you want more of something […]
The BA wage premium keeps growing
The chart below makes clear, once again, that those with a four-year degree or more earn the highest wages. And that advantage is growing. Unabated from 1979 through 2017. This data also make clear that the demand for those with some college or an associate’s degree is declining, not expanding, as conventional wisdom has it. We […]
Getting a BA means more work and higher wages
The Bureau of Labor Statistics each year publishes a chart that details the unemployment rate and median weekly earnings by education attainment for those 25 and older. The data for 2107 are below. Year after year the same story. Each time I look at the new data the question that comes to mind is “how […]