Posted on 06/29/2006 9:42:37 AM PDT by presidio9
New England states will face a shortage of educated young workers if demographic trends continue, according to a study to be released today, a shift that could exacerbate business leaders' worries about the region's workforce.
The report, by scholars at the universities of Massachusetts and Connecticut, finds that each of those states stands to lose tens of thousands of young workers holding at least a bachelor's degree by 2020, a period when the same critical workforce will grow in other regions.
``This new finding should heighten everyone's concerns about the region's long-term economic vitality," concludes the report, which was sponsored by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, a Quincy philanthropy that promotes access to colleges and universities.
Moreover, the working-age populations of both states, plus those of Maine and Rhode Island, will shrink over the same period, the report found, in contrast to the growth expected in Sun Belt and Western states. Businesses will be particularly anxious about the lower numbers of skilled workers, said study co author Stephen Coelen of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis in Storrs.
``You can look at this any way you want to and you'll find we have lost population, which is going to make it harder to be competitive," Coelen said in an interview yesterday. ``We've constantly been talking about this trend since the 1990s, but we have never had data that show we're on the precipice as much as we're seeing this now."
The report comes as some of the largest companies with headquarters in Massachusetts, such as mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments and data-storage maker EMC Corp., increasingly are adding employees in other states and countries, amid worries they have tapped out the workforce in a state that census data show is growing slowly.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I've been to both Northern California and Southern California, and you're right - for a young person choosing a place to live, and able to tolerate socialism in its many forms - California is perhaps THE choice to make. Alas, I'm too old and too fossilized to move; I'll probably die and be buried in Massachusetts.
And we New Englanders thank the good Lord for that. Anyone who puts tomatoes in chowder is a damn fool.
No it's not. And your hyperbole is quite silly.
Get out of the damn city if you don't like what you see there, my friend. The city of Boston < > all of New England.
Besides the rude people (so he says), brutal winters, and insane prices, he said he just misses the "kinder" South. And he is a guy born in Germany! He is one of my more liberal friends, and I thought he would fit in great up there. To my surprise he is actively trying to leave.
War Eagle back at you! Are you an alum?
My parents are in their late fifties, and recently moved to Charlotte because the taxes in Maine were killing them. They and I are the first persons on either side of the family (with the exception of my paternal grandmother, who came down from Canada) to live outside Maine since before the Revolution. Some of us have been there since the French settlers were kicked out of Nova Scotia by the Brits.
My folks' house in Charlotte is a couple of hundred square feet smaller than the one in Maine. It cost a lot less, and the taxes are less than a third as much, even though this house is in the inner ring of suburbs and the house in Maine was 45 minutes out from Portland.
"New Englanders who experience reality, and decide that they will be better off in a Red State will, I am sure, become good Conservatives if they are not already."
You cannot rely on that. Look at Colorado. about 1 MILLION immigrants from California invaded over the last decade. They fled californias gross taxes and the resulting high home costs and poor business climate, all the result of electing democrats for decades. Now they are in Colorado and what do they do? They elect a democrat legislatrue who immediately begins to dismantle Tabor, pass more taxes and damage the business climate.
Now it will be many years before Colorado is in the shape of most blue states BUT, they are on the path.
These immigrants from blue do not see their votes and anti business sentiments as the reason for Blue State woes...No, it's 'Bush's' fault or the feds or anyone else than themselves.
I call it 'out of state progressive infestation'
That's the reason the Left is desperate to destroy the Electoral College, because the number of blue state electors will continue to shrink along with them.
I think it's an instinctual recognition of the wrinkles and lines on the face. Since they weren't formed by having a sour expression on one's face 95% of the time, we just look different. :-)
One of the joys of living here (Freeport, IL) is seeing how few there are now compared to right before the election. There are so few that I have to work hard not to laugh hysterically when I see one, because I know anyone still displaying one is a moon-moon-moonbat!
Why do you think the cost of living is so high? Corporations don't pay taxes, they pass them on to the consumer. To some extent personal income taxes drive those prices up, too.
Sort of an alum. I dropped out after spending 3 years regularily changing majors there...(hanging head in shame). I thought I'd have time to go back and finish my degree after the children were born. Tee hee.
But my hubby got his undergrad there (he actually grew up there & it is considered "home") and I can't escape Auburn athletics & all things Auburn. I actually spent part of my morning going through his approximately 5,000 AU T-shirts & throwing the older ones away so that we can have some more space in our dressers-- hopefully he won't notice!).
I must say though, why would NY consider putting up with William Weld, after what he did to MA? Not in the same
league as Dukakis, but Weld did some pretty damaging things to MA, going back to his days as a US Attorney, even.
New Yorkers, pass on Weld. And I voted for him. Twice.
Heretic.
I like living here. I like some individuals who I know are moonbats. I don't like the fruit of their progressive activities, including especially the ridiculous state government. I wish more people would read Howie Carr's columns and there was a better opposition newspaper.
In the 20th century -- not so long ago -- those textile mills, ship yards and machine shops wouldn't pay either, and the region turned towards electronics, computers, and finance. In a few decades New England went from being an economic basket case to something of a showplace. So this is the latest chapter.
Of course it's more of a man-made problem now, not nature's fault. And taxes have a lot to do with it. Also, you can outsource just about anything now. A few decades ago we believed that the computers designed by New Englanders would still be built outside Boston -- even though the handwriting was on the wall even then. Now we see that a company doesn't have to have build or design anything in a particular location.
And New England never had much of a "hinterland" in the way that other regions did. That meant that things could go wrong in the large cities. Taxes and expenses could increase. Work habits might slacken. Urbanites would be bitten by this or that craze. But there'd always be someone from the backwoods to set things straight: either by outvoting the city folk at the polls or by moving into the city and taking up work. That doesn't happen here as much as in other parts of the country.
But I'm not so sure these problems are New England's alone. A lot of the country's troubles and weaknesses are concentrated here, but they're not unique to the region.
The Boston Globe is owned by the N.Y. Times = anti-American, treasonous, working to increase the number of American soldiers killed in the war on terrorism.
By cost of living, I meant specifically the cost of housing. Full stop.
Personal income tax rates in North Carolina and Georgia are HIGHER than they are in Massachusetts. We also pay no sales tax on clothing or food, and property taxes aren't bad, either--I pay .6% of the value. But that's if you can buy a home here, and most people can't.
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