December 9-16, 2004

city beat

Talent Grab

Cities are desperate to attract young people. Wait—it's not what you think.

by Brian Howard

Philadelphia—like all major cities—is hankering for 25- to 34-year-olds something awful. And a capacity crowd of business professionals gathered at the World Café Live on Tuesday for the Creative Economy Conference to learn more about wooing them. In recent years, a groundswell has developed in economic and urban studies circles emphasizing the importance of young dancers, artists, filmmakers, software developers, photographers, designers and such—people historically marginalized by corporate America—as absolutely vital components of urban economies looking to prosper. Why? Hold tight.

The conference featured a presentation by Carol Coletta, host of syndicated public radio show Smart City, who unveiled the results of her study "Young and the Restless: How Philadelphia Competes for Talent." How's Philly doing? According to Coletta, we've lost 195,000 young workers between 1990 and 2000, a rate of decline nearly twice the national average. (The demographic is shrinking.) Further, a relatively small share of our population (13.5 percent) falls in this category. Even further, we've been losing 1 percent of our college-educated young adults while nationally that group has increased by 10 percent. That's some of the bad news.

On the plus side, 33 percent of our young adults have four-year degrees compared to 30 percent in other metro areas. Also, our vibrant downtown—a big draw for this group—is inhabited disproportionately by well-educated 25- to 34-year-olds. And, we have a more diverse population (with proportionately larger numbers of African-Americans and Asians, but slightly fewer Hispanics).

What was of particular interest is why cities are clamoring to attract this group. Do corporations and politicians suddenly appreciate arts and culture over profit margins? Umm, no. Young workers are cheaper, more mobile, more productive and more currently educated than their older counterparts, according to Coletta's study. As mentioned above, they're becoming a market scarcity; according to the study, if population trends hold, there just won't be as many of us as there were a few years ago. Hence the competition. Hence the cities and corporate campuses stocking up on amenities—WiFi? Corporate art sponsorships?—that appeal to younger workers. And since young, talented workers tend to favor tolerant, artistic cities, there's been a push there as well.

Philadelphia compares favorably well against a list of 10 things this age group looks for, says Colletta. But, we could do better. In closing, she offered this advice: "Remember, substance counts. Young people aren't fooled by ads."