Talent is America’s most precious resource—it’s time economic development organizations focus more on developing it

This article provides a great entry point into how TA leaders can coalesce around public policy matters. For decades, economic development corporations have prioritized real estate as the key levers for providing business and economic growth to regions and localities. However, re-examining the basic economics actually reveals that the “collective knowledge and capabilities of the U.S. workforce are worth an estimated $240 trillion—four times more valuable than the country’s physical capital stock and ten times more valuable than all the urban land in the United States.” 

This new information begs the question: how can we better align economic incentives so that businesses prioritize their next investment in the training of internal talent and prospective employees, rather than the next company move to a new metropolis? Improving our ability to help companies recruit, hire and train talent in their own communities can help reduce regional economic inequities and can ensure that more prosperity in the innovation economy arises from small, rural and non-metropolitan America.

Check out the full article here: Talent is America’s most precious resource—it’s time economic development organizations focus more on developing it