The pandemic is shattering the dreams of high school seniors
Since the onset of the pandemic, far too many Michigan high school seniors––particularly non-affluent seniors––have had their dreams shattered. By either not enrolling in college or enrolling and then dropping out or enrolling in post-secondary education at a level below what they aspired to and were qualified for these students have had their life chances […]
Expand Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit now
Our analysis of the robust 2019 Michigan labor market makes clear that Michigan has a two-tier economy. Nearly six in ten Michigan payroll jobs pay less than what is required for a family of three to be middle class ($47,000). This two-tier economy is prevalent across all of Michigan and across all races and ethnicities. […]
Michigan’s lack of jobs in high-wage occupations
Terrific op ed in Crain’s Detroit Business by Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director of MICHauto and Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor. They write: The most successful strategy to ensure Michigan’s long-term competitiveness and economic prosperity is to increase the number of workers with college degrees and with digital skills in professions […]
The paucity of high-paid blue collar manufacturing jobs
In a 2012 post entitled Low pay driving job vacancies I posited that the reason manufacturers had a shortage of skilled trades workers was low pay, not a skills shortage. That post featured a New York Times Magazine article by Adam Davidson entitled Skills don’t pay the bills. Davidson wrote: The secret behind this skills […]
Get younger and better educated or get poorer
For years we ended our presentations with a slide that said Michigan must get younger and better educated or we will get poorer. Where younger meant a place where Michigan was retaining those who grew up here and attracting mobile young talent from any place on the planet. And better educated primarily meant increasing the […]
How much workers made in the pandemic labor market
We have explored frequently that those with a four-year degree or more over a forty-year career work more and earn more than those with less education attainment. One of the reasons being that those with a B.A. or more tend to keep their jobs during downturns and if they lose a job get back to […]
Concentrating talent is the path to prosperity
The 21st Century path to prosperity––to a broad middle class––is concentrating talent. Not factory jobs. Why? Because today’s mass middle class are professionals and managers who work in offices, schools and hospitals. Not production workers who work in factories. You can see that clearly in the table at the bottom of this post. We compared […]
Rivian HQ and Amazon HQ2 are the path to prosperity
A year ago Rivian, often described as the Tesla of trucks, announced that they were moving their headquarters from suburban Detroit to Irvine California. The announcement received hardly any Michigan press coverage. And, even more concerning, no reaction from Michigan’s political and business elites. Two years earlier Amazon announced that, despite big subsidy offers from […]
The business case for a big Earned Income Tax Credit expansion
We have proposed a big Earned Income Tax Credit expansion. Increasing the current state match from six percent to 60 of the federal credit. Doing so would increase the average state credit from $150 to $1,500. To us it is clear, as evidenced by nearly four in ten Michigan households unable to pay for basic […]
Led by New York, big cities had a great decade
The 2010s were a great decade for America’s big cities. The 2020 Census found that each of the top 25 cities in the country gained population. 14 of them had population growth of more than 100,000. New York City led the way. Growing by an astonishing 629,000. Only 29 cities in America have a population […]