The paucity of high-wage middle-skills jobs
Conventional wisdom has it that there are myriads of high-wage jobs that don’t require a B.A. but do require something more than a high school degree. These jobs are labelled middle-skills jobs. The claim of so many high-wage middle-skills jobs is a central component of the you don’t need a B.A. messaging that students––particularly non-affluent […]
Education pays: the 2023 update
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 who work full time. Here is the data for 2023. Year after year after year the same story. Pre pandemic and post pandemic the same story. Each time […]
Michigan Talent Partnership: placemaking as high-wage economic development
Over three decades of rigorous data analysis has taught us one fundamental lesson: This is an economy where talent attracts capital. Where young talent goes, high-growth, high-wage, knowledge-based enterprises follow, expand, and are created. The new path to prosperity is concentrated talent. After being one of the most prosperous places on the planet for most […]
Michigan Future’s origins and current work
Our goal is rising income for all: creating a Michigan economy that as it grows benefits all. Where the measure of economic success is household income based, rather than unemployment and economic growth rate based. Our work is focused on getting a data-driven, big-change economic well-being state policy agenda enacted in a purple state. Where […]
The wide variety of good-paying jobs now and in the future
As we explored in our last post conventional wisdom about the value of a B.A. in obtaining a good-paying job and having a prosperous forty-year career is vastly underestimated. The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce calculates that 59 percent of today’s good-paying jobs require a B.A. and that will grow to 66 […]
B.A. pathway dominates good-paying jobs today and tomorrow
Terrific new report entitled The Future of Good Jobs | Projections through 2031 by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Highly recommended. Using what we would consider a low-bar definition of a good-paying job the report projects in 2031 66 percent of good-paying jobs will be B.A. pathway jobs; 19 percent middle […]
The young adult B.A. advantage is growing
Conventional wisdom is overwhelmingly that earning a B.A. is now less and less valuable. The reality is the exact opposite: the young adult B.A. advantage is large and growing post pandemic. The Pew Research Center just released a report titled Is College Worth It? that documents both that conventional wisdom of the lack of value […]
The B.A. premium grows year after year
We have written frequently about the wage premium enjoyed by those with a four-year degree or more. And yet we continue with a public conversation that increasingly questions the value of getting a four-year degree or more. The reality is that a four-year degree or more is the most reliable path to a middle class […]
Two decades later, report finds that knowledge workers, not factory jobs, remain key to prosperity
Twenty years after the first edition of Michigan Future, Inc. and the University of Michigan’s report titled A New Path to Prosperity? Manufacturing and Knowledge-Based Industries As Drivers of Economic Growth was released, the two organizations are releasing a second edition which contains a startling finding: Michigan’s economic standing has plummeted with Michigan now ranking […]
Michigan’s Prosperity Will Be Generation Z Driven
Adapted from Michigan Future, Inc. President Lou Glazer’s Growing Michigan Together Council presentation on November 2, 2023. Michigan was a 20th Century high-prosperity state. Now we are a 21st Century low-prosperity state. Ranking 39th in per capita income, 13 percent below the national average in 2022. This is the lowest Michigan has been compared to […]