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MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
MHT's Galen Moore: New 'hyperlocal' web trend
Chances are, no one will study how much productivity was lost in last week’s “No-easter” — the blizzard that wasn’t. Schools were canceled before a single flake hit the ground, employees stayed home, businesses closed early. Greater Boston was shut down for a skimcoat of snow.
Those who did manage to get to downtown Boston were treated to an easy commute. The experience of zipping along the highways into the city got me thinking about an economic indicator that anecdotally tends to be pretty accurate: Let’s call it the Traffic Density Jobs Indicator. I haven’t studied tollbooth transactions, but ask anyone who drives or takes the commuter rail and they’ll confirm that traffic’s been better during rush hour for over a year now. Let’s face it: Fewer jobs have meant fewer cars on the roads and fewer people on trains.
With Scott Brown’s Senate win and Massachusetts politicians gearing up for a gubernatorial fight, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the rhetoric has shifted to an “all jobs, all the time” theme. The House, Senate and Patrick Administration have all come out with job initiatives, from unemployment insurance rate freezes to workforce development programs.
It’s about time that small business and entrepreneurship got credit for the economic development engine that it is. While these measures may get whittled down — or may be too little, too late — they’re a step in the right direction.
Not long ago, elected officials’ technology platform was focused on two industry darlings — cleantech and the life sciences (our theme this week). But neither industry has delivered on their jobs promises. It remains to be seen which initiatives ultimately make an impact. If they don’t, it will be interesting to see what the administration will point to as a job-creation success come election time.
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