Denizens and boosters of Charlotte were shocked and disappointed when they found out the Queen City didn’t make the top 20 final destination for Amazon’s HQ2. And as you can expect, the navel gazing is boundless. The “uptown” crowd cannot believe this prestigious company could’ve easily overlooked a world-class city such as ours.
What are we to do?!
As you can expect, the usual mantra is investment - investment - investment with an emphasis on higher education in the Charlotte region. Here is an excerpt from an op-ed by the chancellor of UNCC Charlotte begging for more money.
We’ve learned through the Amazon HQ2 experience that Charlotte’s strengths might not be compelling to everyone. But we also have learned that even more substantial investment is necessary to help strengthen UNC Charlotte’s higher education leadership position within our region’s economy.
Our region’s relative lack of higher education horsepower, as indicated by enrollment, is significant when compared to the “Amazon top 20.” Public and private research universities serving the Amazon finalist cities have combined enrollments ranging from about 51,000 students in Nashville to New York’s nearly 350,000. As the only research institution in our region, UNC Charlotte’s enrollment of 29,317 trails far behind.Our ability to deliver prepared graduates is not much of an issue when recruiting major companies like Met Life, Sealed Air, and Allstate with much smaller local employment bases. But the gap is significant when attempting to feed the talent needs of the behemoth that is Amazon.
I wonder if the average North Carolinian knows who the biggest employer is in our state. I was shocked to find out it was our university system. Here is a map of the biggest employers in each state. Take notice of the top three industries.
In 22 states, Walmart is king.Diana Yukari/Business Insider
So the biggest employers are the healthcare industry, university systems and Walmart. Amazon wasn’t even the biggest employer in the state of Washington; that designation goes to Boeing.
If anything, Amazon has demonstrated that opportunism is abound when it comes to businesses, prospective cities and bloated university systems. We can never have enough “investment” when tax dollars are concerned.
Source:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article195300309.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-employers-each-us-state-2017-6/#alabama-walmart-1
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article198150584.html
We’ve learned through the Amazon HQ2 experience that Charlotte’s strengths might not be compelling to everyone. But we also have learned that even more substantial investment is necessary to help strengthen UNC Charlotte’s higher education leadership position within our region’s economy.
Our region’s relative lack of higher education horsepower, as indicated by enrollment, is significant when compared to the “Amazon top 20.” Public and private research universities serving the Amazon finalist cities have combined enrollments ranging from about 51,000 students in Nashville to New York’s nearly 350,000. As the only research institution in our region, UNC Charlotte’s enrollment of 29,317 trails far behind.Our ability to deliver prepared graduates is not much of an issue when recruiting major companies like Met Life, Sealed Air, and Allstate with much smaller local employment bases. But the gap is significant when attempting to feed the talent needs of the behemoth that is Amazon.
I wonder if the average North Carolinian knows who the biggest employer is in our state. I was shocked to find out it was our university system. Here is a map of the biggest employers in each state. Take notice of the top three industries.
In 22 states, Walmart is king.Diana Yukari/Business Insider
So the biggest employers are the healthcare industry, university systems and Walmart. Amazon wasn’t even the biggest employer in the state of Washington; that designation goes to Boeing.
If anything, Amazon has demonstrated that opportunism is abound when it comes to businesses, prospective cities and bloated university systems. We can never have enough “investment” when tax dollars are concerned.
Source:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article195300309.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-employers-each-us-state-2017-6/#alabama-walmart-1
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article198150584.html
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