Richard Florida, of Creative Class fame, ranks Albany as a top mid-size metro for talent clusters in the legal and media fields.
Their criteria were:
- Size of labor force: How many individuals are working in each talent cluster? Metros with larger employment numbers received a higher score.
- LQ: How specialized or concentrated is a metro in a talent cluster? Metros with a higher LQ or specialization received a higher score.
- Salary: Which metros have the highest cluster salary? Metros with higher salaries were awarded a higher score.
One has to wonder what journalists get paid in other mid-size metros.
Seriously, though, we probably owe this to Albany Law School and the presence of three daily papers in close proximity. Will we see nanotech on there some day? To be seen...
Do not lose sight of the fact the Albany is the second largest government center outside of the beltway in DC. Many, many card carrying legal types and reporter/public relations types are on state agency payrolls and working for various segments of the state legislature and/or judicial branches...Exclude these folks and Albany probably falls to the rear of the pack of the these so called "cluster" ratings.
Posted by: hawkny | June 11, 2007 at 09:21 PM
Yes, actually, you're probably quite right. The government center and related stable employment is also one of the things that put us at the head of some other goofy ranking (least stressful, I think) a few years back.
Posted by: Miriam Axel-Lute | June 12, 2007 at 10:48 AM