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 […]
We are now a poor state continued
As we explored in our last post Michigan is now structurally a lower tier state in per capita income. And in the bottom ten in per capita income without transfer payments. We believe per capita income is a best measure of economic well being. It is the most comprehensive and reliable estimate of income of […]
We are now a poor state
The reality is, whether we are willing to admit it or not, Michigan is now one of the country’s poorest states. That is the unambiguous message of the table below. It shows Michigan’s rank among the 50 states plus D.C. The left hand column is per capita income, the right per capita income minus government […]
Not so rewarding technical training
Increasingly the story we are being told about the economy is that there are too many people with four-year degrees and not enough with training for mid-skill jobs. Needing something like an associates degree with an occupational major or occupational certificate. And increasingly we are also being told that getting a four-year degree in a […]
In demand: those with four year degrees or more
MLive reports that: “College graduates are entering the most robust job market in more than a decade, according to an annual survey completed by Michigan State University (MSU). A survey from MSU’s College Employment Research Institute found that after several years of small gains, hiring for 2014-2015 is expected to jump 16 percent for new […]
Michigan in the bottom ten
No matter who wins next week’s elections for Governor and the state legislature those elected will be taking over a state economy that is a national laggard. The best evidence of that reality comes from the recent release by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis of 2013 state per capita income data. They report that […]