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 […]

Minnesota led the Great Lakes in population growth

More than a decade ago we asked if the state’s economic development strategy worked, what state would you want Michigan to look like? Our answer was Minnesota. At the time the most prosperous state in the Great Lakes. And cold weather and non coastal so that mirroring their economy seemed realistic for Michigan. As the […]

America does not have a student loan crisis

Google student loan crisis and you get to choose from 58 million results. Over and over and over again we are told that today’s college students, particularly those who pursue a four-year degree, are saddled with debt so large that they are more likely to be paupers than prosperous. So as conventional wisdom goes high […]

Where young professionals develop essential skills

In our last post we looked at the skills business-led KC Rising describes as essential to career success: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, interpersonal skills, proactivity and executive function. In this post we want to look at where metro Kansas City young professionals develop essential skills. KC Rising conducted focus groups with young professionals in part […]

21st Century career success essential skills

The business-led metro Kansas City regional prosperity organization KC Rising recently published a terrific report defining what are the essential skills all students need for career success. Their definition: Communication – The ability to adapt within various channels, to connect effectively with clients, co-workers, supervisors, and other collaborators. Collaboration – Cohesive teamwork that recognizes and […]

Michigan’s top ten upper middle class occupations

This post answers the question “What are Michigan’s top ten upper middle class occupations?” Where we define upper middle class as jobs that pay at least $70,539. Our calculation of what it takes to be upper middle class for a three person household. In 2019 there were 914,000 of those jobs out of a total […]

STEM doesn’t dominate Michigan middle class jobs

This post updates our analysis of the proportion of good-paying Michigan jobs that are in STEM fields. This time using our middle class jobs for a three person household threshold. Where we define middle class as payroll jobs than pay at least $47,026, and upper middle class as payroll jobs than pay at least $70,539. […]

Michigan Future’s American Rescue Plan priorities

For the first time in a generation Michigan, its schools and local units of government have new revenue for public investments. An unprecedented amount of new money, anchored by the American Rescue Plan funding. Which, of course, raises the question “how can those new funds be used to best help improve the well-being of all […]

How much workers make in a two-tier labor market

In a previous post we detailed that Michigan has a two-tier labor market. One for those with a B.A. or more and the other for those without a B.A. The B.A. labor market is dominated by jobs that pay middle class wages for a household of three. The non B.A. labor market is dominated by […]

McKinsey on economic opportunity post pandemic

Must read new report from McKinsey entitled Unequal America: Ten insights on the state of economic opportunity. The findings come from an online survey conducted by Ipsos of 25,000 Americans in the spring of 2021. Results are reported on for Americans as a whole as well as for a wide variety of demographic and geographic […]