MCI Makes Job Cuts in South Carolina

MCI will trim jobs at its call center in Greenville, SC, as a part of its plans to cut an additional 2,000 call center jobs nationwide.

The company said it would close call centers in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Wichita, Kan. It will cut an unspecified number of jobs in Greenville and Iowa City, Iowa.

The company, which recently emerged from bankruptcy as WorldCom, cut 4,000 call center workers in March and has eliminated 14,000 jobs so far this year.

More here.

Indy Steps Up Arts Effort

Indianapolis has an ambitious $10 million cultural tourism initiative under way. A Cultural Development Commission is funding new arts projects, helping clear red tape for permits to place art where it can readily be seen, and putting artists in touch with prospective patrons. While it is at it, the city ought to refurbish some of the urban wall murals it commissioned decades ago.

Major public works are part of what will make the city more vibrant. So are smaller, individual contributions.

More here.

DHL Announces to Stay in Ohio

The city of Wilmington, OH got news yesterday it had waited eagerly for months to hear: DHL has chosen to keep Wilmington as its principal hub for a $1.2 billion plan to improve overnight letter and package deliveries to North America.

Ohio made a hefty, $422.4 million offer to help persuade DHL to keep its main hub in Wilmington, rather than move it to the company's freight hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in northern Kentucky.

The Plantation, Fla.-based shipper said it expects to spend $350 million to upgrade the existing Wilmington airport as the base for sorting operations and nightly delivery flights for what the company expects will be improved service to U.S., Mexican and Canadian destinations.

The improvements include increasing Wilmington's freight sorting capacity, adding ramp space for more planes and opening seven additional regional sorting centers around the country in locations yet to be disclosed.

DHL, which is owned by Germany's Deutsche Post World Net, hopes to become more competitive with the larger U.S. shippers FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service.

DHL said it will consolidate operations by moving an undetermined number of jobs by the fall of 2005 from DHL's freight handling hub at the Cincinnati airport to Wilmington.

More here.

Grand Junction Raises ED Funds

The Grand Junction Economic Partnership has raised more than $1.4 million in its economic development campaign. 191 businesses and individuals kicked in funds. The money will be used to allow GJEP to fulfill the mission of bringing jobs to the community... to improve and diversify the economy. Campaign General Co-Chair Norm Franke says GJEP is poised to bring quality companies to the community that will contribute to this area's future economic stability.

More here.

America's Best Cities for Singles

You know how I like those place ratings...Wrong! In any case, we need to know what is out there. Here is Forbes Top Singles Cities.

Looking for jobs galore, cheap beer and highly educated, unattached young people? Head for the mountains! The Denver-Boulder metro area is America's best place for singles. The Mile High City edged out larger metros like Boston and Washington, D.C., thanks to its booming job market, relatively low cost of living and large university population. Our annual listing of America's Best Cities For Singles ranks the 40 largest metropolitan areas in seven different categories: nightlife, culture, job growth, number of other singles, cost of living alone, coolness and public opinion.

See the list here.

Fortune's Top 100 Small Growth Companies

The technology industry makes a comeback but health care companies dominate our fourth annual list of small and speedy growers.

This is a great business recruitment list, if I have ever seen one. Take a look at the performance of these companies. Wow! Yes, some will not make it, but there are lots of bright spots here.

View the top 100 list here.

European View of the Growing U.S. Trade Gap

America’s trade gap is growing again. Worse, it may be extremely hard to close it without causing much economic pain—and not just for Americans.

Last year, when the dollar resumed its steady decline after a brief spring rally, many observers felt vindicated and a little relieved. The world had grown too dependent on selling its goods to America. For its part, America was too dependent on flogging its assets to the rest of the world to finance its addiction to imported goods. To be sure, America’s willingness to spend more than it could strictly afford on other countries’ manufactures was welcome at a time when most of these countries’ economies were sluggish. But deficits of over 5% of GDP in America’s current account could not be sustained. Having carried the world economy through the first, crucial leg of recovery from the slowdown of 2001, some economists felt it was time for America to “hand over the baton” to the rest of the world and pause for breath.

Some say that America is refusing to let go of the baton. It continues to import much more than it exports while investing more than it saves. According to figures released last Friday, its current-account deficit, having narrowed to 4.6% of GDP at the end of last year, has widened again in the first quarter of this year (see chart), to 5.1% of GDP.

Were we expecting too much from a fall in the dollar? In other countries, a swift depreciation of the exchange rate has worked wonders. A fall of 20%-plus, in real terms, in the Swedish krone after 1992, for example, turned a deficit of more than 3% of GDP into a surplus of about 4%. But Sweden is a relatively small economy. Providing it remains outside the euro, it can depreciate, gaining competitiveness against its neighbours, without beggaring them. The United States, on other hand, is such a crucial destination for the imports of so many countries that they may struggle to find alternative sources of demand.

More here.

Soft Skills in ED

I cannot emphasize enough the need for economic developers and their boards to work on their own "soft skills" development.

People must learn to trust, work together, understand themselves and others, compromise, and overcome differences if they are going to succeeded in economic development.

I have three clients right now where these issues will make or break their ability to succeed.

I will be writing more about this subject, but wanted to set the stage for things to come.

Everyone needs to increase their collaborative advantage to compete!

Virginia County Opens China Office

Governor Mark R. Warner announced today that the Henrico County Economic Development Authority has opened an office in Shanghai, China, in efforts to recruit Chinese companies and encourage partnerships between Chinese firms and Henrico businesses.

More here.

Nebraska Takes Aim at Competitiveness Improvements

In order to grow Nebraska "border to border," the state needs to "do something differently," said the state's economic development leader.

Richard Baier, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED), said the state is not competitive enough with business incentives and its personal tax structure.

Many businesses, particularly small urban businesses, don't qualify for the incentives the state offers, Baier said, and personal taxes -- on real and personal property and income -- are too high.

More here.

ED Job Changes Abound

Lots of changes in the ED world. Take a look at some of these situations that showed up in today's email box:

Economic development leader gives Mississippi tough love message

Antioch economic development director may lose job

Clearwater gets new economic development chief

Hampton to conduct nationwide search for new economic development ...

And these are just a few out there.

Check Out the American Indian Graduate Center

We need to do a better job of helping minorities enter scientific and engineering fields. Here is one resource that is working toward that goal with Native Americans.

The American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC), a 501 (c) (3) private non-profit organization, was established in 1969. AIGC was incorporated in the state of New Mexico in 1971.

Founders Robert L. Bennett (Wisconsin Oneida) and John C. Rainer (Taos Pueblo) created the program to assist American Indian college graduates to continue their education at the master's, doctorate and professional degree level.

American Indians continue to be the least represented of all minority groups in the country in fields requiring advanced degrees.

AIGC was founded to help open the doors to graduate education for American Indians and to help tribes obtain the educated Indian professionals they need to become more self-sufficient and to exercise their rights to self-determination.

Learn more here.

Learn from the BEST

BEST (Building Engineering and Science Talent) launched in September 2001 as a public-private partnership to follow through on the September 2000 recommendations of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development.

The Commission published a report, “Land of Plenty: Diversity as America’s Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology,” which served as a national call to action to redress the demographic imbalance of the U.S. technical workforce. Currently, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and persons with disabilities comprise 2/3 of the overall workforce but hold only about 1/4 of the technical jobs that drive innovation. This imbalance threatens the economic future of all Americans.

Learn more here.

Regional Entrepreneurial Strategies

Many regions are working to increase entrepreneurship, especially in technology-based industries. You may find this presentation by Phil Psilos from Regional Technology Strategies to be of interest.

Click here to download the presentation.

KC Regional Marketing

Click here to download a copy of Bob Marcusse's presentation on Kansas City's regional marketing effort. He offers some good advice on branding and other issues.

The Costs of Worker Disengagement

Gallup Organization recently conducted a poll on worker engagement and disengagement in the workplace. Very interesting results. How much is worker disengagement impacting the productivity of companies in your community. Moreover, how much is this problem impacting your own organization's productivity? Read on.

Negative workplace relationships may be a big part of why so many American employees are not engaged with their jobs. The Gallup Management Journal's semi-annual Employee Engagement Index puts the current percentage of truly "engaged" employees at 29%. A slim majority, 54%, falls into the "not engaged" category, while 17% of employees are "actively disengaged."

To probe the impact of workplace relationships, the Gallup Management Journal surveyed 1,003 employees nationwide. Respondents were asked a variety of questions about their relationships at work. Gallup examined responses to see which questions differed most between engaged employees and those who were not engaged or actively disengaged.

Among the findings: Engaged employees are much more likely than others to say that their organization "encourages close friendships at work." Eighty-two percent of engaged employees showed agreement by rating the statement a 4 or 5 (on a 1-5 scale where 5 is "Strongly Agree"), compared to 53% of those who are not engaged and just 17% in the actively disengaged group. This connection shouldn't come as a surprise, considering several of the 12 items used to gauge engagement test for positive relationships (one statement is "I have a best friend at work.") -- but even taking that into account, the correlation is very high. (See "Item 10: I Have a Best Friend at Work" in See Also.)

Perhaps more telling is the fact that 51% of employees who strongly agree that their organization encourages close friendships at work (who rate this statement a 5 on the 5-point scale) are extremely satisfied with their place of employment, compared to just 19% of employees who disagree with that statement (by choosing a 1 or 2).

In fact, responses to all of the relationship questions in this survey differ significantly by respondents' engagement level. "Our favorite moments, jobs, groups, and teams revolve around friendships with other people," says Tom Rath, Gallup's global practice leader for strengths-based development, who is currently working on a book describing the importance of workplace friendships. "But we spend very little time identifying and developing friendships at work. In fact, our latest data suggest maxims like 'familiarity breeds contempt' may have weakened employee productivity in the 20th century."

More here.

Defining and Measuring the Informal Economy

Here is an interesting topic for economic developers--defining and measuring the informal economy in various countries, including our own.

Recent estimates say that the informal economy in developing countries in 2000 was equivalent to 41% of their official GDP. In Zimbabwe, the figure was 60%. In Brazil and Turkey, around half of non-farm workers are in the informal sector. In OECD countries the share of the informal economy was lower, but far from negligible, at 18%.

So, how large is the informal economy in your community, region, or state?

For more information, go here.

Here are two studies on the topic that you might find interesting as well:

“Size and Measurement of the Informal Economy in 110 Countries Around the World”. World Bank Working Paper, July 2002.

“The Hidden Dangers of the Informal Economy”. McKinsey Quarterly, 2004, no 3.

Pennsylvania Considers Lowering Business Tax

A business tax reform commission is recommending lowering the state's corporate net income tax from 10 percent to as low as 6 percent.

If Pennsylvania lowers its corporate net income tax, it will be a significant selling point for Pennsylvania as a place where executives want to relocate their businesses, said Secretary of Revenue Gregory Fajt, the commission's chairman.

To replace the lost revenue, the commission said the state would have to close loopholes in the corporate net income tax and eliminate some tax credits and economic development programs that may not be necessary as a result of a lower tax.

The proposal is nothing more than "tax shifting," said Jim Welty, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

He said that the commission could recommend overall lower taxes if it takes into account the resulting increases in personal income that business creation would cause.

A final report will be produced later this year.

Gov. Ed Rendell created the commission in an effort to lure more businesses and create a fairer tax code.

More here.

Israeli-Georgia Nanotech Collaboration

The folks in Georgia are playing their ED hand well internationally. They have built collaborative ties with Israeli scientists and companies to advance nanotech development in both Georgia and Israel. I like the sound of this joint approach. It's all about building the national and global networks to connect to new opportunities.

Israeli expertise in nanotechnology is making international waves - reaching all the way to the southern part of the United States.

In Georgia, local scientists together with several major technical institutes in Israel are combining state funding and brainpower to create a nanotechnology research center.

Nanotechnology, the creation and use of the very smallest of particles, is on the cutting edge of science, and is expected to help mankind discover cancer at very early stages, improve detection of dangerous gases and aid in repairing gene damage.

Now the state of Georgia, together with Georgia Tech University is investing $81 million to go toward the construction and operation of a world-class nanotechnology research center. With a projected operating date of 2007, the 160,000-square-foot facility will feature 30,000 square feet of clean rooms necessary for the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. The center would be the most advanced nanotechnology facility in the Southeast, on par with similar facilities planned or under construction at MIT, Cornell, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Last month, four of the school's top officials traveled to Israel for weeklong meetings with their peers at four Israeli universities - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba. Their goal was to establish faculty exchange and dual-degree programs that will enhance research efforts on both sides of the globe.

"We want to make Georgia the hub of nanotechnology in the United States," and "we want to make Israel the center of nanotechnology in the Middle East," Aviv Ezra, Israel's deputy consul for the Southeast, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The cooperative effort got off the ground after a conversation between former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue in May 2003. Later last year, Peres publicly called upon Israel and North American communities to invest in nanotechnology and to support the Israel Nanotechnology Trust, established by the government of Israel to secure funding for Israeli scientists working in the field.

More here.

Phoenix Wants Its Own Medical School

For decades, one of Phoenix's loudest civic rallying cries has been that it is the largest city in the United States without its own major medical school.

Philadelphia, for example, which Phoenix just eclipsed in size, has four major medical schools in its center city.

But how much does Phoenix lose by not having a medical school?

A lot, judging from how much medical schools and teaching hospitals can contribute to the economy. A recent study by the American Association of Medical Colleges shows that directly or indirectly they employ 1 out of every 54 wage earners in the country.

In Tucson, the University of Arizona's College of Medicine and teaching hospital employs about as many people as the city.

The UA's college brings in $79 million in grants, putting it in the city's top 30 revenue producers. And that doesn't count revenues generated by the teaching hospital.

More here.

Juneau Battles Loss of Talented Young People

The loss of Alaska's most talented young people to Outside has triggered growing concerns, but the Juneau Economic Development Council is trying to reverse what's commonly known as "brain drain."

"This is a problem," JEDC Business Development Manager Meagan Gleason said. "Students are leaving Juneau to go to college, technical or trade school and they're not coming back."

The council is planning to launch a new program, The Knowledge Industry Network, to try to prevent brain drain and hopes the program will eventually expand statewide. Gleason presented the plan Friday at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The project is at the conceptual stage.

The Knowledge Industry Network"s mission is to "rally young, progressive professionals in their 20s and 30s to organize in support of making Juneau a cauldron of innovation, interaction and entrepreneurship."

More here.

Indiana Cities Work to Attract Young Professionals

An increasing number of communities are working to increase their young professional population. Several Indiana cities, like Fort Wayne and Muncie, are moving in that direction.

Read more here.

Municipal Merger Proposal in Pittsburgh Area

Here is an idea that folks in the Pittsburgh area are mulling over. The idea: Merge 39 municipalities in southeastern Allegheny County and call it Rivers City. If it came to pass, the beleaguered Mon Valley would become the third-largest city in the commonwealth, rather than a collection of oddly shaped and fiscally struggling cities, boroughs and townships.

The Rivers City concept is a spinoff of research conducted in the Pittsburgh office of the Pennsylvania Economy League.

Not surprisingly, the proposal has not found much support among the 361 elected officials who currently populate the 134 square miles of Rivers City. About 350 of them would lose their positions under the proposal.

More here.

What Will Houston be Like in 2025?

It is 2025, Houston is booming with a great quality of life, and a good portion of the credit can be traced to the visionary Regional Transportation Plan created by the Houston-Galveston Area Council way back in 2004. Other cities were seduced by the anti-car mirage, but a small team of hard-nosed planners and elected officials at H-GAC stayed grounded in reality and created a pragmatic plan that blossomed into the wonderful city we have today.

To read the future-cast, click here.

Interesting!

Massachuetts Biotech Effort Supports Early Childhood Education

"INVEST in Children" is the slogan on the state's special license plate that sends modest but important funds to help childcare centers develop quality programs for our youngest citizens. Yet overall, the well intentioned programs we use to invest in our preschoolers are fragmented and inefficient.

Massachuetts' governor will be reviewing a provision to phase in over the next decade universal, voluntary preschool for children ages 3 to 5. This proposal was crafted in the House, and the Senate also included it.

Included the budget is the creation of a Department of Early Education and Care, which will promote school readiness when children's emotional and intellectual development makes them most ready to learn. It also provides for better coordination of childcare services for children from birth to 5 years. Furthermore, it streamlines childcare licensing requirements and cuts administrative costs. In short, it represents the kind of reform the governor says he wants.

Across the state, nearly 40 organizations from organized labor, education, medicine, religion, and business have endorsed this effort. It is worth noting that the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council supports universal early childhood education as an economic development issue. The council promotes research and job creation in the biotech field, which holds great promise of high paying jobs for Massachusetts.

More here.