Friday, April 11, 2014

Seattle Is Dying

Boeing is flying out of Seattle in search of cheaper STEM talent at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Economic convergence.



Postscript: Boeing is moving operations where the engineers it needs are produced, in Southern California. That's great news for the Legacy Economy in Los Angeles area. It is a bit unsettling for current tech darling Seattle.

4 comments:

washington irving said...

Thought you'd appreciate this one "The Milwaukee advantage
Provade thrives after moving from Silicon Valley"

http://www.biztimes.com/article/20140414/MAGAZINE03/304099983/-1/MAGAZINE

Allen said...

I'm not comfortable with the looking for cheap talent idea. At least not in how we normally use cheap --> something that doesn't cost a lot. For example, a pair of Wrangler vs some boutique brand on from a shop on Rodeo drive.

A decade ago when Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, et al. were opening new campuses in places like Vancouver, India, Fargo, etc. people said they were looking for cheap talent. I thought they were but not as in a pair of Wranglers. I suspect a big part of what they're trying to do is just find people who can get the job done. If you can't find someone who can solve the problem at hand, whether they're costing you $100k or $200k / yr isn't even chicken feed compared to some to the $32+ billion Boeing has spent just on the Dreamliner.

Jim Russell said...

washington irving,

You are right. I appreciate the article. Great find. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Jim Russell said...

"whether they're costing you $100k or $200k / yr isn't even chicken feed compared to some to the $32+ billion Boeing has spent just on the Dreamliner."

Allen,

This is precisely the point. We wouldn't expect wages to be factor in a firm's location decision. But evidence is mounting (I'm already convinced) that the Innovation Economy has hit a breaking point with rising salaries.