“The goal here is to strengthen the areas we have a national lead in, and rectify or improve the areas we can now see a disadvantage,” said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. “This is actually going to be very helpful for not only keeping track of what our peer states are doing, but informing our decisions.”
The Massachusetts’ Technology, Talent and Economic Reporting System is a dashboard that can compare states by a number of metrics, including hiring difficulty for employers and workforce information. The information is focused on understanding the workforce and potential talent in the state.
“It’s talent that’s going to drive where we go, and it’s going to determine which countries, which states, which towns, prosper and which don’t,” said Gary Beach who presented MATTERS at the council’s annual meeting.
Baker, who gave the keynote address at the meeting, said Massachusetts cannot be complacent.
“It’s pretty clear to us that we’re going to have to work a lot harder to be competitive,” he said. “We need to do a better job of lowering our cost of pretty much everything.”
The event was a homecoming of sorts for Baker, who began his career at Mass High Tech. Organizers displayed a 30-year-old picture of a young Baker in front of a long-obsolete computer before the governor gave his address.
©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
