Skilled Labor / STEM
Recent Features
Contributed Content
Ohio’s 15-Year Bet on Speed and Infrastructure
With surging demand, business-friendly legislation and billions in investment, Ohio is building the energy infrastructure that factories, data centers and advanced manufacturers need to grow.
Ready to Show: Five Things Every EDO Should Be Able to Answer Right Now
The communities winning projects aren’t necessarily those with the best assets. They’re the ones that know exactly what they can deliver — and can prove it quickly.
In Focus: The Cleared Personnel Challenge
In defense-related site selection, access to workers who already hold security clearances can narrow the location search before incentives or real estate enter the discussion.
Brownsville Opens an Office for the Space Economy
As the commercial space sector matures, economic development organizations are adapting to opportunities that extend beyond business recruitment.
Connecticut’s submarine boom tests its workforce pipeline
Eastern Connecticut has built an unusually coordinated system for moving people into manufacturing careers. Now the scale of submarine production is testing whether the region’s suppliers, schools and infrastructure can keep pace.
Space and Defense Are Becoming One Industrial Ecosystem
As launch, satellite and defense engineering increasingly draw on the same technology, talent and supply chains, communities built around one industry may already have what the other is looking for.
Alabama Thinks the Next Competitive Advantage Is Government Itself
Alabama has reorganized workforce development around a simple goal: make government easier for employers to navigate.
Why Traditional Migration Data Is Misleading Corporate Real Estate Leaders
Headline migration statistics obscure the movements that matter most. Looking at specialized talent flows reveals a different picture of New York's competitive position—and offers a better framework for location strategy.
Where Construction Investment Goes, Economic Growth Follows
Understanding the construction industry’s multiplier effect — and the workforce infrastructure behind it — can sharpen site selection and economic development decisions.
The RFI Is No Longer the Starting Line
AI has moved the front end of site selection upstream by weeks — and the communities you evaluate are being scored before you contact them. Understanding what that pre-screening process surfaces changes how corporate real estate teams should think about their own location process.
Why Relationships Still Win Projects in Site Selection
Economic development is often described as a data-driven process. RFIs are issued. Responses are scored. Sites are ranked. Incentives are compared. A winner emerges.
What's Driving Site Decisions Right Now: Gold Shovel, Deal Killers, and the Korean Investment Wave
Four conversations from SelectUSA and the field reveal what’s driving investment now — from Mississippi’s execution model and workforce pipelines to project delays and a surge in Korean manufacturing interest across the Southeast.
In Focus: The Cost Stack Is Inverted
Transportation represents 45 to 75 percent of operational expense for most industrial and distribution operations. Real estate by comparison, is only between 5 – 15%, a rounding error for some organizations. The implications for how location decisions should be structured — and where cost optimization effort should be focused — are significant and widely ignored.
The Shifting Landscape of Location Strategy
Five surging forces reshaping where — and how — companies grow.
Semiconductor Demand Is Infinite. The Talent Isn’t.
AMD is racing to build the chips powering the AI era. First, it has to build the engineers to design them.
Incentives Don't Fix Execution Risk
Why tax breaks and grants still matter—but can't compensate for weak sites, limited power, or delivery uncertainty.
Workforce Still Matters—But It's No Longer the First Filter
Why labor hasn't disappeared from site selection—but is now competing with power, land, and execution risk.
Why America's Largest Companies Are Investing in Skilled Trades
The biggest workforce challenge facing AI, advanced manufacturing and infrastructure projects isn't operating new facilities—it's finding enough skilled workers to build them.
Training for an Economy That Isn’t Fully Here Yet
Northland Workforce Training Center is opening two facilities this July that bet the region’s future on a gap most people haven’t noticed.
Contributed Content
Wisconsin is a Rising Force in Biohealth and Biopharma Manufacturing
With research strength, manufacturing depth, and a statewide workforce strategy, Wisconsin is positioning itself as a destination for biohealth and biopharma growth.
Editor's Note: A Higher Bar for Winning Projects
Projects are still advancing—but fewer are clearing internal hurdles. As assumptions around cost, timing, and delivery get tested, only the deals that stand up to full internal scrutiny are moving forward.
Avoid These Red Flags, Deal Killers, and Blunders in Site Selection
Industry experts from site selection, construction, law, and supply chain consulting weigh in on what's derailing projects in 2026 — and what it takes to keep deals alive.
21st Annual Shovel Awards: The American Industrial Economy Remade in Real Time
The competition for transformative projects is intensifying. From $10 billion data centers to next-generation manufacturing, this year’s Shovel Awards show which states are winning—and how they’re building durable industrial ecosystems.
21st Annual Shovel Awards: The Projects of the Year
The investments that stood apart for their scale, strategic significance, and economic impact — from advanced manufacturing and life sciences to headquarters expansions and AI-powered data centers.
First Person: UCB's $2 Billion Bet on Gwinnett County
For Philippe Mantelet, a $2 billion biologics facility represents more than a capital investment. In this interview, he outlines how UCB approaches site selection — balancing speed, infrastructure, talent, and long-term certainty — to make decisions that hold up well beyond the initial buildout.
What Korean Manufacturers Underestimate About Building in America
U.S. expansion decisions are increasingly won—or lost—before site selection begins. For Korean manufacturers, aligning capital strategy with infrastructure realities has become the defining challenge in executing successful investments.
Where Early-Stage Life Sciences Companies Get Stuck Scaling Their Real Estate—and How to Move Forward
Biotech firms face delays in programming, permitting, and infrastructure as they scale from lab to production.
Contributed Content
How Ohio Is Powering America’s Next Industrial Wave
With surging demand, business-friendly legislation and billions in investment, Ohio is building the energy infrastructure that factories, data centers and advanced manufacturers need to grow.
AI Isn’t Killing Jobs—It’s Reshaping Hiring
AI isn’t eliminating jobs—at least not yet. But it is quietly reshaping how companies hire, and where those jobs show up.
How AI Is Reshaping the Way Communities Compete for Investment
Why earned media—not websites—is becoming the front door to site selection.
Where Workforce Capacity Is Being Built — and Where It’s Being Deployed
Introducing the Area Development State Talent Pipeline Ranking.
40th Annual Corporate and 22nd Annual Consultant Site Selection Survey Results
For decades, the bedrock question of corporate site selection was some version of the same calculation: where can we do this most cheaply? That era is not simply fading. According to the results of Area Development's 2026 Annual Survey of Site Selection Consultants, it has ended. Welcome to the new era of operational certainty.
Last Word: When Incentives Lead, Projects Follow—Often in the Wrong Direction
Why chasing the biggest package can derail site selection decisions before they begin.
Editor's Note: Raising the Bar on Readiness
Contributed Content
Montgomery County, Maryland: A Global Hub for Growth and Innovation
Just outside Washington, D.C., Montgomery County pairs one of the nation’s most educated workforces with federal research assets, transit-connected development, and a deep life sciences cluster poised for its next phase of expansion.
What Companies Need from Modern Manufacturing Sites
Capital, infrastructure, power and workforce now define competitive manufacturing locations.
