Lou Glazer and Donald Grimes write--Michigan must shift jobs focus.
These authors focus on a need to increase knowledge worker industry and jobs. Last month I posted--too many knowledge workers--regarding a piece in The Independent that stated the UK is producing too many knowledge workers. Could we really be producing too few here in the USA?
An excerpt from the Detroit News piece:
"...Of the 15 states (including Michigan) where the manufacturing share of employment earnings is greater than from knowledge-based industries, all had 2001 per capita income below the national average.
Education is another indicator of future prosperity and one critical to Michigan's future. It is important to have a healthy supply of 25- to 34-year-old workers with a bachelor's degree or better.
Unfortunately, Michigan falls below the national average in the educational attainment of young workers. All of the most prosperous states substantially exceeded the national average in workers with college degrees.
Michigan's gap with the more successful states ranges from more than 7 percentage points with Virginia to more than 15 percentage points with Massachusetts.
The evidence strongly suggests that knowledge-based industries are playing the same critical role of producing growth in a post-industrial economy as manufacturing did in the industrial economy. Knowledge-based industries are now the major source of employment growth, particularly of good-paying jobs. And they are the most powerful engine fueling overall economic growth..."
K-Collector Topics: Economics Education Knowledge Economy knowledge work The State