Newsclip

STUDY: WORKFORCE NEEDS STILL A CHALLENGE FOR INNOVATION SECTORS
By Jim O’Sullivan
State House News Service
Monday, December 18, 2006 10:01 AM

BOSTON, DEC. 18, 2006….Despite some promising signals of improvement, the Bay State innovation economy continues to lose its grip as one of the nation’s leaders, beset by competition from other states and outpourings of key workforce demographics, a new report finds.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s innovation economy index says flattening federal assistance for research and development combined with the venture capital industry veering away from risky start-ups have reduced cash flow into the state’s economy, at the same time that other states work harder to compete for the same fund.

“[E]ven though there are recent signs of a modest jobs recovery in some key clusters, the growth in employment in the majority of these clusters is alarmingly slow when compared to the other [leading technology states],” the report finds.

While the state’s paucity of affordable housing hobbles the economy, Massachusetts “still dominates” competitive states in the level of education its workforce receives, according to the index: In 2005, approximately 37 percent of people aged 25 and older held a bachelor’s degree.

But the state’s workforce remains poorly equipped to fill the promise of the innovation sectors, the index claims, trailing other states in the number of students showing interest in computers, engineering, and information science.

Beacon Hill policymakers have worked to lure “new economy” investment, trying to streamline permitting processes and dangle R+D incentives in front of companies. But overarching trends in the Commonwealth worry the MTC, the state agency responsible for renewable energy and the so-called innovation economy.

“There are concerns around sub-par job growth, low rates of commercialization and high-tech startups and housing costs contributing to the exodus of some of our younger workers,” said Patrick Larkin, director of the John Adams Innovation Institute, MTC’s economic development arm, and an author of the index, now in its 10th year.

Larkin called the index’s “number-one priority” increased attention to workforce development measures like kindergarten through higher and adult education, and education programs attuned to the needs of the technology sectors.

In 2000, according to the study, the percentage of Massachusetts high school seniors planning to major in computer, engineering, or information science was 12 percent; by 2005, it slipped to 11 percent, even as Gov. Mitt Romney emphasized math and science as important to the state’s public education system.

Those numbers slotted the Bay State at least fifth, behind others Virginia, North Carolina, California, and Minnesota.

The number of Massachusetts seniors interested in “health and allied services” climbed from 12 percent to 14 percent during the same period, which tied it for eighth among leading technology states.

Gov.-elect Deval Patrick has spoken frequently of expanding the state’s innovation economy, promising to pursue alternative energy and life sciences, and saying that if the state succeeds, “the whole world will be our customer.”

The index is scheduled for a panel discussion Monday at the State House, and one of the speakers initially slated was Rep. Daniel Bosley, the North Adams Democrat who co-chairs the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies. Bosley on Sunday was named a top adviser to Patrick for economic development.