The No. 1 problem for high-tech firms these days is the shortage of skilled workers, especially those with the talent to make an entire company succeed. And the "talent wars"--firms raiding one another for top people--are going to get even worse. What's also interesting is how the shortage is influencing the character of communities and, in turn, urban politics.
Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, produced a fascinating report in January titled "Competing in the Age of Talent: Environment, Amenities and the New Economy" (http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~florida/talent.pdf).
Florida's yearlong study looked at how cities and regions compete for technical talent in the new economy, and the role that environmental and "quality-of-life" factors play in this competition.
"Knowledge workers," says the report, "essentially balance economic opportunity and lifestyle in selecting a place to live and work. Thus, lifestyle factors are as important as traditional economic factors such as jobs and career opportunity in attracting knowledge workers in high-technology fields."
Five years ago, some pundits claimed that the flexibility of the new economy would spell trouble for cities. George Gilder, for example, proclaimed that the Internet would lead to the "death of the city."
What he didn't anticipate is that young people tend to like being around other young people. The result is that hip, young technology companies have revitalized many downtown neighborhoods, as in Manhattan's Silicon Alley, Seattle's Pioneer Square, San Francisco's China Basin, Santa Monica's downtown area and Austin, Texas' Congress Avenue.
Florida says that because young workers can essentially choose to work nearly anywhere, they gravitate to places that offer a fairly distinct mix of environmental quality, social life and "amenities," including youth culture, sports, night life, music and "coolness"--in short, an urban identity that everyone knows exists but that is difficult to describe completely.
"Due to the long hours, fast pace and tight deadlines associated with work in high-technology industries, knowledge workers require amenities that blend seamlessly with work and can be accessed on demand," Florida wrote.
