LANSING – Michigan is gaining the high-skill, high-education jobs state officials have been hoping to attract, according to a study released Thursday by Public Policy Associates Incorporated.
Doug Drake, a consultant with the Lansing-based public policy firm and former director of the Office of Revenue and Tax Analysis in the Department of Management and Budget, found that the state had, in the last four years, added 55,000 jobs in fields such as health care, business support services, real estate and rental and leasing and credit intermediation – jobs that generally require higher levels of education.
The report, A Look at Michigan?s Emerging New Economy, showed 45 percent of the 25 top sectors for gaining jobs were in these higher skilled disciplines, while the 25 sectors losing the most jobs were nearly all found in manufacturing, most of those in vehicle manufacturing, what has been Michigan?s top job producer for a century.
“While an enormous amount of public debate and policy thinking in Lansing has been focused on how to ‘save’ the auto industry, that is truly beyond the capacity of any state government,” the report said. “Ultimately, the auto industry needs to save itself, in the marketplace, with better products. On the other hand, steps that might nurture and support the continued emergence of the new economy are well within the scope of state policy.”
Drake said in the report that the state is already making some of those changes, as shown by the job increases.
“To build upon this foundation, and expand on it, Michigan will need to substantially increase its public and private investment in education and infrastructure – and will need to change its collective attitude, and shift to a culture that values education and entrepreneurship much more heavily than we do today,” he said.
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