"We hope to make a decision about expanding or adding a new facility in the continental U.S. by the end of this year," said Scott Testa, chief operating officer of Mindbridge. His organization currently employs 100.

"Availability of technical staff is probably, quite frankly, the most important factor we'll look at in the site selection process," he noted. "We are a technology firm, so we are really looking for prospective employees with at least a bachelor's degree; that's generally our criteria. So the number of colleges and universities in an area is something we look at closely.

"As part of our selection process, we consider various measures, such as number of scientists and engineers in an area,” Testa added. “We try to look at all the data, with the more data the better. The issue is being able to compare sites using the same statistics, so if we are looking at three or four different sites, we want to have the data consistent across that matrix to be able to make at least a somewhat objective decision."

And that's where Expansion Management's High Value Labor Market Quotient™ can help executives like Testa, as well as other executives wrestling with a current site selection project.

Expansion Management took a variety of yardsticks as a starting point to develop our 2003 High-Value Labor Market (HVLM) metro rankings. These yardsticks include science & engineering workers as a percent of the work force in U.S. metros, the number of patents issued, and the level of R&D spending. To this mix we added number and type of colleges in each metro, and we gave extra weight to institutions that offer advanced degrees.

Values from each of these yardsticks were applied to each of the 331 U.S. metropolitan areas to come up with the overall metro rankings.

The top 30 metro areas in Expansion Management's 2003 High-Value Labor Market (HVLM) ranking are widely dispersed throughout the United States. California leads the way with five finishers among the top 16 metro areas. Michigan, New York and Texas each had three finishers among the top 30 HVLM metro areas, while Pennsylvania, home of Mindbridge, racked up two metro finishers in the top 30 HVLM metros.

Skilled Workers Drive Motor City to the Top of HVLM

"We are thrilled with Detroit's first-place ranking," said Greg Handel, senior director, work force development for the Detroit Regional Chamber. “It confirms findings of our own research department, which were based on some of the same kinds of indicators that Expansion Management looked at."

Research and development is a major user of these high-value workers.

"People don't realize that a large percentage of the auto industry's R&D goes on in this region,” Handel said. “They know the auto assembly plants are here, but they don't understand that what really drives this region is R&D, and that's the brain center of the auto industry."

Labor planners like Handel are working to maintain the high-quality reputation of the Detroit work force.

"We have a very large community college network, and our work force development boards work together on a regional basis quite often to help upgrade worker skills," he said.

The strong education infrastructure in and around Detroit serves as an effective talent magnet, said Sophia Koropeckyj a senior economist for www.Economy.com, a Web-based independent provider of economic, financial, country and industry research.

"The many research institutes at the University of Michigan frequently create partnerships with private industries,” Koropeckyj said. “Not only do you get grads to go out into the private industries, but they develop products together, as well as spin-offs from the university."

Golden State Metros Score Very Well in HVLM

With six California metros ranked in the HVLM top 30, it's safe to say that California can deliver skilled staffers to any enterprise planning to relocate or expand.

Chris Collins, general manager of the nation's largest BMW dealer, Crevier BMW in Santa Ana, Calif., said it’s important for his business to have a pool of skilled technical staff and qualified workers readily available.

"We are close to Irvine, which has a lot of technology firms, as well as colleges and technical institutes, so there's an abundance of talent available here,” said Collins, who directs 250 employees at the dealership. “The universities are good at providing us with interns for all areas, including clerical, sales assistants and technical staff.”

Gauging metros on the number of colleges and universities within their boundaries, along with number of degrees offered, was a no-brainer for the HVLM ranking.

"I don't think there's any question that there's a positive, direct correlation between college availability and work force quality," said Justin Heet, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based think tank.

Expansion Management went beyond four-year colleges and universities in its analysis of U.S. communities. Statistics on community colleges in metros were also compiled for the HVLM, and with good reason.

An estimated half of the more than 10 million students who attend the nation's 1,150 community colleges each year go for job training rather than degrees, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. As U.S. factories continue to cut jobs, an increasing number of laid-off manufacturing workers will be headed to community colleges for skill upgrades that can benefit new employers.

“Interviews I've conducted with HR people in a range of manufacturing firms in the last few years suggest to me that nearly everybody is looking for a smarter, better educated and more flexible worker than they were 20 years ago,” said William T. Dickens, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. “The reliable guy who shows up on time everyday and does what he is told isn't good enough. They want someone who can work with a team to implement innovations.”

And lest we forget about the relationship between patents and job-creation, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges’ (NASULGC) recent “Shaping the Future” report explained: “Patents are an important step for universities in moving research from the campus to the marketplace, in forming partnerships with business, and in spawning new companies and industries.”

NASULGC member institutions file about 31 patent applications on average each year, with almost half of those applications winning acceptance by the U.S Patent & Trademark Office.

And what about software developer Mindbridge and its plans to expand? COO Testa is sold on the need for his firm to find an expansion site that offers abundant skilled labor.

"Suppose you are putting a new facility in — that's great, but if a quality work force is lacking, it makes no sense to open it," Testa said.

Philadelphia, which is quite close to Mindbridge’s headquarters, finished a strong number 14 in the 2003 HVLM ranking.