Migration of young workers powers growth of economy

A low-cost business environment,most everyone knows, can attract new companies into a region's economy.

But those same low costs also are critical to a second piece of regional economic growth wooing the smart and entrepreneurial young people who generate new ideas and build new companies.

Joel Kotkin, scheduled to keynote the 21st annual Governor Industry Appreciation Awards event on Tuesday, says no one should underestimate the power of the migration of workers in their 30s and 40s.

Kotkin, a Los Angeles-based consultant and author,wrote the Inc.Magazine article this spring that identified Reno as the best place in the nation to do business.

The article notes the importance of Nevada's low taxes and business-friendly regulatory environment, but says the Reno area also has been a major beneficiary of the movement of young educated workers away from high-cost urban centers.

Those workers, he says, are the fuel of economic growth.

That migration which some have dubbed "Bright Flight" has seen a flow of workers out of regions such as the Bay Area into places such as Reno.

"I think this phenomenon has accelerated since the last census,"Kotkin said in a telephone interview a few days ago.

Those highly educated, highly skilled workers typically are looking for places they can afford to live,which means that housing prices are a key factor in their decisions.

Also important,Kotkin said, are the quality of schools, the opportunity for personal economic growth and infrastructure such as parks and open space.

While some economic development officials in some regions focus on attracting skilled workers in their 20s,Kotkin suggested that a more successful strategy may be to target slightly older workers.

"A lot of mistakes have been made because people focus on the 20-somethings," he said."When they get into their 30s, people grow up.

They're looking to go to a place where they can settle down and buy a home."

Also mistaken, he said, are strategies to create attractive urban amenities charming arts districts, for instance with the thought that they'll attract a young educated workforce.

Far more successful,Kotkin said, is a strategy that pays close attention to regional costs the cost of housing for workers, the cost of taxes and utilities for companies and allows the urban amenities to follow.

But he noted that regions with relatively affordable housing also attract retirees from higher-priced markets.

Those retirees, he said, often don't make significant contributions to the regional economy and can bid up the price of housing beyond the reach of young families.

"This is a universal phenomenon," he said.

"It's one of the things that can threaten your economic growth.A lot depends on how successfully the community engages those people economically."

The Governor's Industry Awards honors northern Nevada companies that have expanded or recently moved to the region.

It is co-hosted by the Economic Development Authority ofWestern Nevada and the Northern Nevada Development Authority in cooperation with the Nevada Commission on Economic Development.