Study: Indiana Needs to Get Digital
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA landmark study from the Brookings Institution finds that while Indiana is number three in the nation for desirable advanced industries – those sectors focused on R & D and STEM that pay more than the average wage – those industries have been losing ground on productivity for more than a decade.
“They’re doing well, but there’s been a slippage of their competitiveness measured by productivity and we think that’s got to be a priority for the state moving forward,” said one of the authors of the study, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Mark Muro, who adds the finding underscores the need for more investment in technology. “Companies that are digital need to get more digital and the many that aren’t, including outside of manufacturing, have go to start moving up the curve.”
Muro and Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Chief Executive Officer David Johnson talked about the report on this weekend’s edition of Inside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick.
The Indiana GPS Project is the first study of economic challenges and opportunities in all 92 counties. It was commissioned by CICP and put together by Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute.
“We’ve done a lot of big research projects over the years, but never anything of this scale,” said Johnson, who adds the report “examines the nature of work in Indiana at a time of enormous transition and change.”
Importantly, says Johnson, it is a comprehensive statewide report that confirms “something we knew by instinct, that our advanced industries in the state are all over Indiana.”