Michigan. “People weren’t encouraged to
go into these fields because they were
being told there weren’t any jobs there.”
Taking matters into its own hands,
WIN’s coalition of 28 employers, three
business incubators, seven workforce
development boards andnine community
colleges around Detroit uses spidering
technology to comb through real-time
online help-wanted advertisements and
analyze what jobs are open and what
skills or education they require. Then it
compares them with the labor supply—
based on résumés onfilewith the local job
boards—to keepupwithworkplace needs.
As a result of all this, the Detroit area,
whichhas begun to call itself “Automation
Alley,” is adding IT jobs faster than Silicon
Valley, Boston or the North Carolina
Research Triangle. Some 1,000 high-tech
companies do business in this area, which
has the highest concentration of technol-
ogyworkers in theMidwest. Detroit isnow
fourth in the nation in the percentage of
employment concentrated in technology.
But while the effort may be new, locals
will tell you it’s all of a piecewith the city’s
history. “It’s our job to be innovators,”
Miller says. “All great innovation started
in Detroit.”
JON MARCUS,
a reporter based in Boston,
covers education for the
Washington Post
,
USA Today
and the online editions of
Time
and NBC News.
JANUARY 2013
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
heads were thought to be considerably
less attractive. Ah, well. You can’t have
everything
. —
JACQUELINE DETWILER
