Riverside, CA – Emerging industry sectors such as emissions technology, solar energy production and storage, information technology and cybersecurity offer tremendous promise when it comes to creating middle-skill, middle-income jobs in the Inland Empire, a new study shows.
The report, “Middle-Class Jobs for a Fast-Growing Region,” was released this week by Inland Economic Growth & Opportunity (IEGO) – a collaborative of the region’s top leaders in the areas of business, government, education and the nonprofit community. It identifies a variety of steps the IE can take to create middle-class opportunities in one of the fastest-growing economic and employment centers in the United States.
“San Bernardino and Riverside counties represent the best of what California has to offer businesses and job seekers,” said Al Arguello, Inland Empire Market President for Bank of America and IEGO co-chair. “Our goal, as a collaborative, is to make sure we’re identifying – and maximizing – the opportunities that are in front of us.”
Automation in the logistics industry is one such opportunity. Often seen as a threat, automation can lead to better jobs if key stakeholders – government, education and the industry itself – work together to establish the IE as an innovation hub.
“Taking advantage of the opportunity for better jobs in logistics will require proactive and strategic partnerships, even more so than in the past,” according to the study, which was put together in partnership with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, and produced by the Center for Social Innovation-UC Riverside with the guidance and partnership of the IEGO Executive and Steering Committees.
Other opportunities include leveraging public-private partnerships such as Chaffey College’s Industrial Technical (InTech) Learning Center to develop a pipeline of trained, qualified manufacturing employees and scaling up apprenticeships, career pathways and other aspects of workforce development.
But it’s the emerging sectors that offer some of the most promising opportunities to economic diversification and middle-class growth. This includes the California Air Resources Board decision to locate its California research headquarters in Riverside, which could help spur clean-air innovation cluster throughout the region
“Small but promising innovation and technology-oriented sectors have gained a foothold in the region and have the potential to generate thousands of middle-skill and middle-income jobs,” said Paulette Brown-Hinds, Chief Executive Officer of Voice MediaVentures and co-chair of IEGO. “IEGO is ambitious and will require committed, sustained support by everyone.“
The report emphasized that the IE cannot rest on its laurels and will need the kind of commitment and shared visioning IEGO is encouraging.
“Over the last few years, the region has made significant strides in developing the capacity for equitable innovation through collaboration,” the report stated. ”The time is ripe for bold, coordinated action that can leverage these efforts into something even bigger, putting the region on a sustainable growth path that provides ladders of economic mobility for all.”
For more information on IEGO or a full copy of the report, please visit http://inlandgrowth.com
ABOUT IEGO: The Inland Economic Growth & Opportunity Initiative is a private-public collaboration across Riverside and San Bernardino counties to better focus economic development efforts toward (1) supporting sectors and firms that create middle-income jobs requiring less than a four-year college degree, and (2) enabling residents to access those jobs. A diverse Steering Committee of around 50 members guides the initiative, with national support from the Brookings Institution. The work is funded and supported by San Bernardino County; Riverside County; University of California Riverside; California State University, San Bernardino; Loma Linda University; University of Redlands; the James Irvine Foundation; and the Golden State Opportunity Foundation. For more information, please visit: http://inlandgrowth.com
