Economy
The New Realities of Talent Attraction
Some U.S. counties are clearly doing a better job of attracting and keeping skilled workers than others.
Economists have long documented the role of talent, or educated and skilled “human capital,” in driving urban growth. A wide range of studies have found that metros with large shares of college grads, such as San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Seattle, have higher wages and incomes than others. Over the past decade or so, cities and mayors across the U.S. and the world have developed strategies to attract, retain, and harness talent.
Most previous research has focused on talent at the metro level, documenting the metros that lead and lag in talent attraction. But a recently released report from the economic modeling firm Emsi details talent attraction across U.S. counties.