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October 5, 2010 Portlandbiz

Study shows Portland has a 'thinking' economy

By The Mainebiz News Staff

What is Portland's work force particularly good at? Thinking, it turns out. That's according to a new report from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management's Martin Prosperity Institute, which studied the work force knowledge of 287 U.S. and Canadian cities and grouped them into 11 different clusters, including Enterprising, Engineering and Teaching regions.

The study, titled "Knowledge in Cities" and co-authored by University of Maine economics professor Todd Gabe, found that Portland, along with New York City, Philadelphia and Charleston, S.C., is a Thinking Region, where workers have a high knowledge in arts, humanities, information technology and commerce and a low knowledge in manufacturing. To determine a city's so-called knowledge economy, the researchers used existing data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network, which asked workers and analysts about knowledge requirements in 33 subjects ranging from sales and marketing, to food production and physics. According to the report, Engineering and Innovating Regions are the most productive based on per-capita gross domestic product relative to the national average, while Working and Farming regions are the least productive. Thinking Regions like Portland have productivity levels that also exceed the national average.

The goal of the report, according to its authors, was to take a more comprehensive look at human capital beyond studying how many workers have college degrees. "The types of knowledge used in the work force are important predictors of economic development, especially in cases where levels of college attainment are similar," Gabe said in a press release announcing the report.

For instance, work forces in Teaching Regions have high levels of formal education but lag behind other highly educated clusters in productivity, and Building Regions have high levels of productivity and earnings per capita in relation to higher education attainment. The report recommended that cities look to their peers with similar knowledge profiles rather than nearby cities as ways to study or improve economic development efforts.

While Bangor was not part of the study, Gabe noted in the press release that the knowledge economies of two of Maine's largest cities are different. "The jobs available in Portland require much higher knowledge about computers, technology and business services, while Bangor is characterized by knowledge about health and social services," he said. "This information clearly demonstrates the two Maines that people talk about."

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