State Job Creation Strategies: Supporting Innovation, Industrial Clusters and Green Job Creation

Progressive States Network (Newman) - Competing globally for jobs starts with policy makers instituting fundamental investments in education, human capital and physical infrastructure that make their state a productive environment for economic innovation.  The next step...is helping the private sector leverage opportunities for job creation and technological innovation...

State policymakers should move away from a tax giveaway mentality towards an approach that step-by-step supports an ecology of local investment, technological innovation and mutually-interdependent industries that together encourage ongoing entrepreneurship and firm growth.  Elements of such a strategy include:

• State-backed venture capital institutions that can not only supply needed capital for start-up firms, but help leverage additional private investments to expand the capital available for innovative start-ups in a region.
• Leverage technology transfer from universities and government labs to translate basic research into commercial products and the technical assistance that can launch firms builds on that innovation.
• Nurture regional industry partnerships and industrial clusters where firms thrive together based on shared investments in the skills of the regional workforce and strategic support for specialized local firms.
• Encourage green innovation that will yield a range of new jobs in the emerging green sector.

Each of these steps emphasizes building partnerships between government, business, community and labor institutions to make continual learning and innovation an integral part of regional economies.