Economic Development News and Views – Dec. 2017

Information you can use:

The Fourth Economy, a new approach to economic development describes integrating sustainable development into triple bottom-line development.

The Untold Story of the Varied Middle: Local Economic Conditions 2017. How to analyze your city’s economic growth potential.

Employment Projections: 2016-26 Summary, BLS. “The fastest-growing jobs through 2026 belong to the Three Cs: care, computers, and clean energy.” Predictions:  “Health care will take over—or, continue its long takeover of—the economy. It’s the end of retail … as America’s most dependable engine of job growth. Inequality—by income, education, and geography—will continue to grow. Automation will take a nibble, not a bite, out of the economy.”

 

Economic Development News: 

State Licensing Laws Can be a Barrier to Employment. Over the years, states have added licensing requirements for a wide variety of jobs. Today, nearly 30 percent of the U.S. workforce needs a license to work. Licensing rules are the new unions.

Redefining Economic Development Performance Indicators for a Field in Transition. Identifies a set of metrics beyond jobs and investment tallies to capture the broader benefits of economic development initiatives.
Economic Opportunity:  

Company site selectors have their eye on the Madison Region. Is ED prospecting again becoming in vogue? Prospect activity in the Madison area has gone from five or ten two years ago to 38 in the first 10 months of this year.

Why Skilled Labor is the No. 1 Location Driver for Manufacturers Today. A recent study by NAM’s Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found that manufacturers will need to fill 3.5 million skilled production jobs over the next decade.  Accordingly, Missouri is one of the first U.S. states to implement a program called “Certified Work Ready Communities.”

Do you have any major data, policy information how-to-do needs?  If you do, please contact WEDI, maybe we can help.

Visit ForwardWI.org for your current economic development marketing data needs. The “Fact Sheets” and Small Business Development “Tool Box” have been updated to 2017.