Nine Shift

Job Creation: 3.5 Million a Month Created

3.5 million new jobs are created every month, Kevin Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute said on radio this month. 

They are jobs in the new economy.  He says old declining industries (manufacturing the obvious example) are losing 3.5 million jobs a month.  So it looks like no new jobs are being created.  But the reality is that the Industrial Age jobs are decling, the Internet Age jobs increasing.  This is very different from saying no new jobs are being created.  This is NineShift in action.

Reference: OnPoint Radio for Thursday, October 13, 2011.

This is some of the new data I provided in my speech this week for the Canton, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Business Fest.

Brain Drain: Where They Move To

Here are the cities the best and brightest young people move to.
The top destinations vary by what brain drain state you live in.  If you are in Ohio, Chicago is top destination for your best and brightest young people.  If you are in Wisconsin,  Seattle and Portland are at the top of the list.

In east coast to west coast order, here's where your kids are moving to:
1.Boston
2.New York
3.Washington, DC
4.Chicago
5.Minneapolis
6.Portland
7.Seattle
8.San Diego
9.San Francisco

This week I am featuring new research in preparation for my keynote on Wednesday for the Canton, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Business Fest.

Job Creation: Create A Business

Fascinating research by the Kauffman Foundation shows that 66% of new jobs are created by firms that have been started within the last five years.

So the solution to creating more jobs is to create a business.  Sounds hard. It's not.  I created a new business last year and it has two full time employees already.  If I can do it, you can.

This week I am keynoting the Canton, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Business Fest. And featuring some of the new research I did in preparing for it.

Gas Tax Crisis: Pay For Your Own Driving!

Drive yourself silly, but pay for it.  Stop making me pay for your wasteful, expensive and polluting car habit.

Here's my question:  Will those of us who drive less, including teleworkers (me), young people, and seniors, start to object to having to pay an increasing amount of our tax dollars and road funding dollars to support others' wasteful, dangerous car habit?  What do you think?  And do you support others' driving, or are you one of those we support? 

First Signs of Gas Tax Crisis in Funding Roads

We told you so, said my brilliant co-author Julie.  We told you that the gas tax funding for roads is broken, unable to sustain the roads.

Now here's the first publicity we've seen on the topic. Note that there is now an advocacy group over this issue.

With Gen Y driving less and Boomers lowered driving on the horizon, we predict by 2020 roads will be financially unsustainable.

 

Dealing with Unmotivated Students

This week's story on our new book's blog on The Pedagogy of the 21st Century. 

Why Business Does Not Invest

Are companies largely run by Baby Boomers the reason business is not investing right now? Tell us what you think. Here's the argument.

Baby Boomer CEOs are the problem. Aging Boomer CEOs are:

1.Risk averse.
They have piled up tons of money, savings, retirement funds. They don't want to risk their entire life savings so close to retirement.

2.Profit, not growth, oriented.
Again, close to retirement, with only a few years to go, why invest long term when there is no long term.

3.Clueless about the new economy.
Boomers are clueless about the new economy, just like they are clueless about Gen Y, the people who are creating the new economy.  No reason to invest in something you do not understand.

4.More likely to be in declining industries.
Boomers are more likely to be in declining industries, companies based on the Industrial Age, not the Internet Age.  These companies really do not have a future.

We could go on with related traits: they don't get social media, they are hierarchical decision makers, they are surrounded by other Boomers with similar perspectives and pre-retirement financial agendas, etc.

What do you think? Are Boomer CEOs to blame for companies sitting on $1.7 trillion rather than investing now?

Photo: More fall colors.

Light Rail in Canada Hot, or Not?

If you are Canadian, what do you think? Is light rail in Canada hot, or not?

I was interviewed earlier this month by a reporter from the Globe and Mail, Canada's largest newspaper (kinda like USA Today, a national newspaper), for a story on our discovery that Gen Y is driving less, and switching to trains.  Not sure the reporter was convinced, but she received my follow up info and asked for more.

So I was in Calgary later that week and found all sorts of evidence.  That week Jessica Napier wrote an article in the local paper titled "Transit Can Be a Real Pick-Me-Up" with the first sentence reading, "I hate to drive."  Then I found the web site of another Gen Yer working for Suncor, the huge oil and gas company, who doesn't own a car, and then I rode Calgary light rail, which comes every 8 minutes in both directions, with a stop at one of the local colleges, where the platform is packed, and took this picture: 

Online Learning Has a Practical Financial Side, but

This week's story on  ourThe Pedagogy of the 21st Century book's new blog. Check it out.

Bluestem prairie grass in full fall color in a state park nearby.

Steve Jobs Death: End of Technology Innovation?

  Does the death of Steve Jobs mark the beginning of the end of technology innovation in this century?  Tell us your thoughts.

Steve Jobs was one of the great titans of technology in the 21st Century.

In the last century, almost every invention was created by 1920.  Not the atom bomb (of questionable benefit), but even television was being worked on by 1920.  So we can reasonably expect most of the major technologies of this century to have been invented by 2020.  Jobs certainly was one of the top 5 inventors (the #1 spot goes to Sir Tim Berners Lee).  Is it the beginning of the end of technology innovation?  What do you think.