Giving Compass' Take:

· Stephen Moret discusses a recent report from Brookings Metro regarding the future of talent-driven economic development and how economic development organizations should respond.

· How has economic development become driven by talent in the workforce? What opportunities does talent-driven economic development provide for cities and states?

·  Check out this article to read more about this topic and how talent is unifying education and employment.

Talent-driven economic development is the future (and largely the present) of effective economic development efforts. How should economic development organizations (EDOs) respond?

A recent Brookings Metro report by Joseph Parilla and Sifan Liu offers some answers, including practical examples of how EDOs—in partnership with employers and the education and training system—are changing policy and practice to achieve better outcomes for people, businesses, and communities. The report is a must-read for economic development leaders focused on positioning their localities, regions, and states for a healthy economic future.

There is ample evidence that talent considerations have come to dominate the site-selection criteria of traded-sector firms as they choose where to place job-creating business investments. Area Development’s annual survey of U.S. corporate real estate executives illustrates the shift. In 2008, executives ranked “availability of skilled labor” as the sixth most important site-selection factor. In 2018, they ranked it number one—an indication that talent development can help position regional economies for growth.

However, as Brookings notes, EDOs generally have not yet retooled their programs and staffing to place a central focus on talent. Obstacles include a lack of staff expertise in talent development and/or talent deployment, inertia, and resource constraints.

A fundamental challenge is that public and private funders of EDOs still largely evaluate their effectiveness using short-term measures of success—principally, the amount of new jobs and capital investment associated with project announcements. This emphasis often runs counter to a focus on talent-driven economic development.

Read the full article about talent-driven economic development by Stephen Moret at The Brookings Institution.