28 Things Economic Developers Need to Know This Week
The stories Dane thinks you need to see. March 11, 2024 edition.
Welcome to this week's issue of What Economic Developers Need to Know This Week, where we explore the evolving dynamics of our economy.
This week we have 28 tools, stories, graphics, charts, and videos that I think you'll find informative, useful, inspiring, and perhaps even humorous. Some are economic development related directly, and some only indirectly. 🤔
If you're wondering what to do with the info in this newsletter, send something to your board members. It will make you look good!
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1) This week's Sitehunt update: As promised, Sitehunt now has a public facing property map for your website included in the price.
Here's a demo:
Also, be sure to click on one of the properties in the demo to see the detailed spec sheet that Sitehunt (with a little help from the economic developer and AI) generated for it.
Reminder: Sitehunt is my AI powered property database for economic developers. It 10x the speed and detail of your RFI responses.
If you'd like a demo of how you can use this for your EDO, please email me.
2) Labor productivity at large US firms is rising again – after 15 years of no growth.
3) Job postings are increasingly dropping educational criteria: In the wake of a rising trend towards prioritizing skills over degrees, more employers are shifting away from mandating official educational qualifications for employment opportunities.
- A majority (52%) of US job postings on Indeed did not mention any formal education requirement as of January 2024, up from 48% at the same time in 2019.
- The share of US job postings requiring at least a college degree fell from 20.4% to 17.8% in the last five years, opening doors for the 64% of US adults without a bachelor's degree.
- Formal educational requirements are declining in nearly every sector, and mentions of college degrees have fallen since 2019 in 87% of occupational groups analyzed by Indeed.
4) 2023's growth by metro from the BLS's Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary.
5) Why economic development?
via Mark Litten
6) For many people, leaving a rural place is a rite of passage. From higher education to looking for love, many think they have to leave to pursue the rest of their lives. This narrative contributes to the often repeated and not all true story that our rural communities are dying.
But according to University of Minnesota researcher Ben Winchester, rural communities are actually gaining residents -- mainly above the age of 35 -- in a trend that he calls brain gain.
