My co-author of our book Talent Force (Prentice-Hall 2006), Hank Stringer (who is also a Clearview contributor), and I wrote about a time in the future when states and local municipalities would adopt, “Free Talent Zones”. These would be places where the government would provide tax breaks to employees for the skills they would bring into the state. These tax breaks would not be just for the companies, but would also be given directly to the talent, employees, so they would be able to relocate, be retrained, and bring their skills to work on a new business or venture.
So far, we haven’t seen much in the way of government tax incentives to support talented employees, but we will. I am sure of it. States have been doling out, with unheard of speed, tax incentives for industries to relocate to their states. Some of them work and some of them don’t, but there is still money to be followed.
If you are in a situation where it is time to make a change, or by necessity a relocation, in order to find work, then follow the money of state tax incentives and research what companies are reaping the rewards from those incentives as those company may be a good place to look for your next job. Also thanks to the Federal Stimulus Plan, monies being targeted to the creation of jobs makes it seem that this stream of money will be around for a while.
For fun, I searched on my home state of Indiana to see the industries of emphasis when it comes to active job creation. What I saw was: Advanced Manufacturing, Agriculture, Energy, Film, Information Technology, Insurance, Life Sciences, Logistics and Motorsports. If my career interests were in any of these areas, I would begin to follow the money and do research into the companies who are receiving the tax incentives and growing their businesses in Indiana. There is no sure fire way to know what the best path to take, but looking upstream for where the money flows, may be a good first path to explore.
