With the social media frenzy at a fever pitch, people may be excused for thinking that Silicon Valley is still the main engine for growth in the technology sector. But a close look at employment data over time shows that tech jobs are dispersing beyond the Valley and its much-celebrated urban annex of San Francisco.
The cities highlighted in this report—Dayton, Irving, Memphis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio,Sioux Falls—each in their own unique way, are examples of how enterprise-friendly leadership,strategies, and partnerships can be put into action to achieve meaningful results.
Historically, progressives were seen as partisans for the people, eager to help the working and middle classes achieve upward mobility even at expense of the ultra rich. But in California, and much of the country, progressivism has morphed into a political movement that, more often than not, effectively squelches the aspirations of the majority, in large part to serve the interests of the wealthiest.
The Future of Manufacturing report identified a number of factors that will shape the future of competition between countries and companies. Three areas rose to the top as the most critical: human capital and talent development; innovation and technology advancement; and strategic use of public policy emphasizing collaboration between policy-makers and business leaders.
Riverside, Calif. – California state economic development director Kish Rajan and deputy director Louis Stewart today joined state and local elected officials in Riverside to announce the designation of four new Innovation Hubs (i-Hub), further expanding the largest network of state sponsored innovation clusters in the U.S. This announcement comes just days after Governor Brown signed legislation–AB 250–to formally recognize the i-Hub program in statute and establish the Innovation Accelerator Account.
Sacramento, Calif. – Executive director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) Teveia Barnes announced today that Governor Brown has signed legislation to expand the I-Bank and increase small business lending in California.
As the economy improves and states continue to vie for new investment and jobs, they also seek the attention of site consultants who help companies make their new facility and expansion decisions. With that in mind, Area Development’s fourth annual Top States for Doing Business survey of site consultants ranks the states based on their number of mentions in 17 categories (scores were weighted based on position in each category and then overall).
Regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, aka startup communities, are being studied and touted as the next new thing in economic development for cities and metropolitan areas across the country—especially in the high-technology and information technology (ICT) sectors. And for good reason. According to a report by Ian Hathaway of Engine that looked closely at the dynamism of the high-tech and ICT sectors in the United States, particularly new and young companies, these are the firms that create jobs at the fastest pace and are important drivers of economic growth.
Governors have updated their economic development strategies and launched new initiatives to further spur economic growth and provide high wage jobs, according to a report released by the National Governors Association (NGA).
The world’s biggest and most dynamic economy derives its strength and resilience from its geographic diversity. Economically, at least, America is not a single country. It is a collection of seven nations and three quasi-independent city-states, each with its own tastes, proclivities, resources and problems. These nations compete with one another–the Great Lakes loses factories to the Southeast, and talent flees the brutal winters and high taxes of the city-state New York for gentler climes–but, more important, they develop synergies, albeit unintentionally. Wealth generated in the humid South or icy northern plains benefits the rest of the country; energy flows from the Dakotas and the Third Coast of Texas and Louisiana; and even as people leave the Northeast, the brightest American children continue to migrate to this great education mecca, as well as those of other nations.
Existing companies, not research universities or entrepreneurship programs, are the most fertile source of startup businesses in most metropolitan areas. That’s a key takeaway from a new study conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, which also found that most areas with higher-than-average startup activity have been strong entrepreneurial centers for at least 20 years.
North Carolina is close to dropping one of the most extensive programs for awarding tax breaks to film companies, in what would be a high-profile retreat from an arms race among states to lure Hollywood productions.
If you harbor reservations about California’s business climate, or its attractiveness to commercial ventures, it can only mean you have yet to make the acquaintance of Kish Rajan, the state’s director of business and economic development. When the former Walnut Creek councilman talks about what lies ahead, he sounds as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.
The demand for labor explains a lot of migration patterns. Where the uneducated once moved to staff large industrial centers, now those with the means and a college education flock to feed the Innovation Economy that is rising from their ashes.
Over the past three and a half decades, state and local governments in the United States have awarded corporations more than $64 billion in giant subsidy packages designed to encourage investment and the creation or retention of jobs.