By Haddon Libby
Last month The Milken Institute published a study analyzing the places where jobs are being created and sustained throughout the United States. When I lived in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to work in the Milken Institute think tanks and speak on urban development in blighted areas. Based in Santa Monica, The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan economic think tank that works toward improving lives around the world by advancing innovative economic and policy solutions that create jobs, increase access to capital and enhance health.
Of the 200 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, of which Riverside County is one, the three best performing places were Austin TX, Provo UT and San Francisco CA. When you look at most of the top ranked places in job creation, they all have either a strong presence in technology or energy creation. Most importantly, all have strong universities training and educating the workers that these industries need.
Top-ranked Austin benefits from a rapidly growing concentration of technology jobs. The University of Texas-Austin is a major research center with more than 50,000 students – two factors that help when recruiting talent. Their Chamber of Commerce had a five year plan to create 72,000 jobs in the area. Instead, they created 192,000 jobs. Factors cited in recruiting businesses to Austin include its hip, urban feel, strong pool of skilled workers and economic incentives.
Provo, Utah currently sports the fastest job growth in the United States. They are quickly becoming a technology hub that is strong in computer systems and microchip production. Brigham Young University helps to provide an educated technology workforce while helping in the commercialization of research as can be proven in that Provo is one of the top patent producing locations in the country. As one of three places in the United States with the fastest fiber-optic service (Google Fiber) as well as the National Security Agency’s new data storage center, Provo is poised to continue its rise as a technology center.
San Francisco ranks as third amongst the best job creating places due to its stronghold in technology and innovation despite California’s rank as one of the least friendly states in the country for business.
Riverside County is posting some of the weakest results in the nation ranking near the bottom at 171 of the 200 locations in sustainable job growth, down 12 notches from last year. While not specified in the study, we know that the Coachella Valley is posting some of the highest unemployment rates in the county and country as well.
Why is the Coachella Valley a laggard to most other areas of the United States in job growth?
We are a destination resort area as well as an important agricultural region. As such, we must understand that the Coachella Valley has a large pool of differently skilled workers.
So what is the answer? We need to start by focusing on what we do best – being a great resort area. To do this, we need to invest in our hospitality and tourism workforce. These people are our ambassadors for the area and have a great impact on visitor impressions of the Valley. A better trained workforce will earn more money by providing exceptional customer experiences.
Once we get the money here, we need to keep it here. That means that we need to buy from locally-owned businesses whenever possible as these businesses spend more locally than their national counterparts. This helps grow our local economy faster.
If we do these simple things, we will be on our way toward a more robust local economy with more and better paying jobs.
