The Bush Administration in February announced a new, $195 million initiative to transform regional economies.  The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative will provide 13 different regions with $15 million in funding and on-going expertise from leading innovation organizations over a three-year period to produce long-term strategic plans that prepare their workers for high-skill, high wage opportunities.

"We are launching the WIRED initiative to encourage regional communities to partner together and leverage their collective public and private sector assets and resources to develop a more highly skilled workforce that can act as the linchpin to attract new economic development and employers,? said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

The initiative is designed for regions that have been affected by global trade, are dependent on a single industry, or are recovering from natural disasters.  WIRED also focuses on labor markets that are comprised of multiple jurisdictions within or across state borders.  While some regions have made considerable progress in integrating talent and skills development into their larger economic strategies, others need additional technical and financial assistanceespecially those that span political boundaries. 

?The only way to address the national challenge of global competition is by building strong regional economies,? said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco. ?By bringing together all the key players including research universities, venture capital firms and traditional organizations of economic and workforce development, regions can optimize their ability to innovate.?

The selected regions are expected to map their existing economic landscape to understand regional strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities and risks; build a regional leadership team of civic, business, investor, academic, entrepreneur and philanthropic members to form consensus on an action agenda; and choose a team of experts to provide guidance.  Under the initiative, state governors will also have a unique opportunity to design and implement strategic approaches to regional economic development.  The Labor Department Employment and Training Administration also hopes to create a WIRED academy to share successes and challenges between selected regions and develop performance measures and benchmarks to track short and long-term impacts of the initiative.

Regions were selected by the Labor Department based on three criteria: demonstration of their regional strategic partnership; presence of impacted economic elements (such as unemployment, low wages, low levels of job creation) and description of market conditions driving the need for transformation; and demonstration of how the region will undergo transformation through the implementation of new efforts, how it will use innovation in addressing challenges, and how it will build on existing resources.

The selected regions are:

• Coastal Maine (11 counties, including Augusta and Brunswick)
• Northeast Pennsylvania (nine counties, including Scranton, Allentown and Reading)
• Upstate New York (nine counties, including Rochester and Finger Lakes region)
• Piedmont Triad North Carolina (12 counties, including Greensboro and Winston-Salem)
• Central Michigan (13 counties, including Lansing, Flint and Saginaw)
• Western Michigan (seven counties, including Grand Rapids)
• Florida Panhandle (16 counties, including Tallahassee and Pensacola)
• Western Alabama & Eastern Mississippi (17 counties in Alabama, including Tuscaloosa and Selma and 19 counties in Mississippi, including Meridian and Starkville)
• North Central Indiana (14 counties, including Lafayette)
• Greater Kansas City (10 counties in Missouri and eight counties in Kansas, including Topeka)
• Denver Metro Region (eight counties, including Denver, Boulder and Ft. Collins)
• Central & Eastern Montana (32 counties covering mostly rural areas)
• California Coast (13 counties, including Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego)

For more information about the WIRED initiative, visit http://www.doleta.gov/

To read profiles of the 13 selected regions, visit http://www.doleta.gov/ProjectSummaries.cfm