U.S. cities compete in hipness to attract the young [The New York Times]
“By 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains.”
“Cities have long competed over job growth, struggling to revive their downtowns and improve their image. But the latest population trends have forced them to fight for college-educated 25- to 34-year-olds, a demographic group increasingly viewed as the key to an economic future.”
“Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, ‘the young and restless’, as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade.”
“The problem for cities, says Richard Florida, a public policy professor at George Mason University who has written about what he calls ‘the creative class’, is that those cities that already have a significant share of the young and restless are in the best position to attract more.”
[…] Le città americane si contendono i giovani lavoratori. Le attuali tendenze demografiche spingono le città a diventare attraenti per attirare laureati tra i 25 e 34 anni, che rappresentano il motore dell’economia futura. Non riuscire ad allettarli significherà rischiare il declino. […]