Close collaboration in the workforce development field is the current trend, creating a more accessible system for businesses and job seekers alike. The Atlanta Fed's Stuart Andreason and Dee Baird of the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance discuss research findings on how the various players collaborate in an Economic Development podcast.

Strength in Numbers: Regional Workforce Collaboration

New research points to soft skills as an important indicator for success in the workplace. Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of Credly, and Laura Lippman, senior fellow at Child Trends, discuss digital badging as a way to document these currently amorphous workplace skills in this Economic Development podcast.

Digital Badging: Credentialing Soft Skills for Better Workplace Outcomes

High school graduation rates can have a broad effect on an area's economic vitality. How can communities implement programs to help students graduate while also providing work skills? Mike Beatty, of Great Promise Partnership, and Mike Wiggins, formerly of Southwire Company, discuss an exemplary model in an Economic Development podcast.

A Promising Approach: Improving Graduation Rates and Building a Better Workforce

How can sector-based workforce development strategies address the needs of both employers and job seekers? Maureen Conway of the Aspen Institute and Fred Dedrick of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions discuss a recent book on the topic in an Economic Development podcast.

Connecting People to Work: Lessons Learned in Sectoral Approaches

How can local economic development strategies evolve to address demographic changes, technological innovation, and increasing global competitiveness? Dan Gundersen, a former senior commerce official, and Rick Weddle, president of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, discuss the topic in an Economic Development podcast.

Looking Around the Corner: The Future of Economic Development

One outcome of the recent recession is that rural poverty rates are the highest since the mid-1980s. Mil Duncan, founding director of the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute, discusses the issues facing the rural poor in an Economic Development podcast.

Microenterprises Raise the Floor and Build a Ladder

Strategies to Mitigate Rural Poverty Using Human and Social Capital 

Microbusinesses are a proven job-creation vehicle and promote economic growth. An Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) report suggests their size and impact has implications for local economic development. Kim Alleyne, at AEO, provides highlights from the report in this Economic Development podcast.

Should Microbusinesses Matter to Your Local Community?

The Working Cities Challenge seeks to spur collaborative leadership in Massachusetts's smaller cities and help improve low-income residents' quality of life. Prabal Chakrabarti, at the Boston Fed, and Jessica Andors, at Lawrence Community Works, discuss the initiative in an Economic Development podcast.

Competition to Incentivize Community Change: Working Cities Challenge

How can economic development practitioners best measure and track their strategies' outcomes? Tim Chase, of the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition, and Swati Ghosh, of the International Economic Development Council, discuss their research findings in an Economic Development podcast.

Measuring What Matters: Tracking Success in Economic Development

The creation of quality jobs in a challenging economy requires rethinking existing strategies. The Federal Reserve and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) have partnered to offer free podcast interviews with economic development practitioners and academics. Podcasts cover innovative postrecessionary economic development strategies, emerging trends in job creation and workforce development, small business trends, and health care issues.

Economic Development

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Attracting and retaining workers is vital to the success of employers and communities. Carl Van Horn of Rutgers University's Heldrich Center for Workforce Development discusses the center's research on U.S. workers' perspectives on employment conditions and the future of the workplace in a new Economic Development podcast.

What Workers Really Think: Perspectives from the Front Lines

Many cities support entrepreneurs as a way to create jobs, increase investment, and restore vitality, especially in the urban core. In this Economic Development podcast, Ray Leach from JumpStart and Joe Marinucci of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance discuss how communities can create a thriving entrepreneur base through innovative approaches to support services and by reimagining partnerships among local organizations.

Revitalizing Downtown through Entrepreneurship

How can a city create an attractive business climate and leverage its unique assets to gain and retain jobs? The Greater Houston Partnership's Craig Richard discusses an approach that has worked in his city to propel significant job growth despite the weak national recovery.

Generating Jobs in Challenging Times: A Texas-Sized Story

Satya Rhodes-Conway and James Irwin, senior associates at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, discuss how retrofitting public and institutional buildings spurs job creation in the real estate sector while reducing building operating costs.

Retrofitting Institutions: Feeding Job Growth with Energy Hogs

Christopher King, director of the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas's LBJ School of Public Affairs, discusses how the country's shift to a knowledge-based economy has brought the fields of economic development and workforce development closer over the past 10 years.

Why Connecting Economic and Workforce Development Matters

Economic development practitioners can foster strategic collaboration among regional concentrations of firms and industries to support job growth and investment in their communities. John Fernandez, the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, discusses how to develop and maximize the effectiveness of regional economic development strategies.

Regional Innovation: When the Sum Is Greater than the Parts

Philip Harvey, professor of law and economics at Rutgers University, discusses how his proposed direct job creation program would create temporary public-sector jobs, and in the process, help reduce unemployment.

Can the Jobs Gap Be Filled through Temporary Public-sector Positions?

How can the workforce development system better respond to people with disabilities?  Kathy Krepcio, of Rutgers' Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, and Michael Morris, of National Disability Institute, discuss innovative programs and policies designed to ensure this sector is poised to meet employers' labor needs.

People-Centered Practices: Improving the Workforce Potential for Those with Disabilities  

Regional collaboration can be an effective approach in responding to labor demands of  local employers. In this Economic Development podcast, Laura Chandler of the Southwest  Alabama Workforce Development Council and Sam Covert of the Mobile Area  Educational Foundation discuss how robust coordination among local workforce development players leads to more successful management of industry partnerships.

Aligning Regional Workforce Efforts: An Effective Industry-Informed Strategy

There is value for both the employee and employer in enhancing the skill sets of lower-wage workers. Mark Popovich of the Hitachi Foundation and Jenny Benz of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research discuss findings of a recent study on this topic and implications for policy and practice.

Employer and Lower-Wage Employee Perspectives on Training and Advancement

Instead of sending waste to landfills, a municipal approach that prioritizes the reuse, recycling, and remanufacture of materials can provide a range of new jobs. Georgia Tech's Nancey Green Leigh discusses how to create jobs from the waste diversion process.

Trash to Treasure: Turning Waste into Jobs 

Economic growth and the preservation of natural resources are increasingly interdependent. Chris Clark, commissioner of Georgia's Department of Natural Resources, discusses the very real and important connections among economic development, community development, and the sustainable use of natural resources, an interdependence that leads to productive industries and thriving communities.

Resources Matter: Protecting the Environment While Growing the Local Economy

Maureen Conway of the Aspen Institute discusses the results of the Institute's Courses to Employment project, which analyzed how community colleges and nonprofits worked together to help low-income adults succeed in the classroom and labor market.

Collaborative Efforts: Colleges and Nonprofits Partner to Enhance Workers' Skills

How can employers be effective partners in improving the local workforce ecosystem? Peter Cappelli, professor and director of the Wharton School's Center for Human Resources, discusses how firms can provide on-the-job training for skills needed within their organizations.

A Case for Greater Company Participation in Workforce Development

Donna Gambrell, director of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund, describes how community development financial institutions differ from other financial institutions and discusses their impact on low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities in this first half of a two-part podcast.

Giving Credit Where It Is Due: CDFIs in LMI Communities

What are the current trends in female entrepreneurship? Alicia Robb, senior research fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, discusses recent data on women-owned firms and the challenges and opportunities in expanding this sector.

Women Entrepreneurs Mean Business

CDFIs (community development financial institutions) are playing a growing and evolving role in job creation across the country. Donna Gambrell, director of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund, discusses CDFIs and how they contribute to economic development in this second half of a two-part podcast.

Should CDFIs Join Your Job-Creation Team?

The importance of financial institutions in economic development efforts has varied by region. As communities struggle with funding economic development efforts, some are re-engaging banks in new ways. Indeed, the financial crisis has re-framed the banking sector's models of economic development deals. Bill Best, senior vice president for Community Development at PNC Bank and chair for the International Economic Development Council, discusses the key role banks play in community and economic development efforts during a time of recovery.

Banking on Economic Development: Financial Institutions and Economic Developmentâ€”A Changing Paradigm

Workforce development issues require collaboration across sectors and geography. Damian Thorman, national program director at the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation, discusses the importance of public, private, and philanthropic partnerships in addressing local and regional workforce challenges.

Power in Partnerships: Addressing Workforce Development Challenges 

The health care sector has been an important source of new jobs in this economy. Dr. Ricardo Azziz, president of Georgia Health Sciences University, discusses the importance of the sector to the economic well-being of communities and how its growth can help catalyze economic development.

The Doctor Is In: Economic Development Strategies in Health Care

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