A U.S. Chamber of Commerce official leading a nationwide job-creation initiative says Kansas is well positioned to benefit from emerging fields, such as the bioscience industry.
“It’s a world-class university system. It’s definitely well-positioned to play a role in the innovations and the new ideas that we need to move forward,” Brian Gunderson said Monday in a phone interview. “I think Kansas is going to be a leader in the coming decade.”
Gunderson, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is the managing director for the chamber’s “American Free Enterprise. Dream Big” campaign. Chamber officials last week met with business leaders in Kansas City, Mo.
Chamber campaign leaders say the nation needs to create 20 million jobs, including 23,000 in Kansas, in the next decade to bounce back from the recession.
Gunderson said Kansas has not suffered job losses as steep as some other states. The state’s unemployment rate dipped to 6.4 percent in October, down from 6.8 percent the previous month. He said the campaign was more about taking on a national mindset about how to encourage innovation to create new businesses.
For now, the U.S. chamber is involved in a 50-state tour to hear from business leaders about challenges before forming a plan to move forward.
“We need new ideas, more innovations on that scale, and I think the biotechnology and nanotechnology and other areas are certainly places where that has come from,” Gunderson said. “I think Kansas is well-positioned to be a leader in that.”
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leedavid (anonymous) says…
Why would Kansas be a leader in biotechnology and nanotechnology? What companies are coming here to do that? What people do we have trained in this field? Where is the funding for this coming from?
Why did unemployment drop slightly in Kansas for the month? According to the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busines...
"For the month, there were 11,700 new jobs in Kansas, rising to 1.34 million. But the figure was still 57,700 below October 2008. Most of the gains were in seasonal jobs, though some growth was seen in government, education and health services."
What do you think is going to happen to seasonal, government, education and health service jobs in Kansas?
avoice (anonymous) says…
leedavid: The University of Kansas has a lot of top-notch research going on in both bioscience and nanotechnology. And I'm not sure about nano, but K-State also is at the top of the nation in bioscience. (Bioscience encompasses quite a lot.) Many businesses want to team up with these researchers for major projects. Of course, much depends on both the growth of businesses in this sector and the continuation of cutting-edge research. As many of the dollars currently going into these types of research come from private sources, it seems that perhaps the reason Kansas may be poised to take advantage is that private industry currently finds it possible to do business in Kansas. Maybe that's because our tax system is favorable to the development of business and especially for emerging industries in the biosciences and nanotechnology.
leedavid (anonymous) says…
Avoice, thank you. I stand corrected. We will see what happens.
Me2 (anonymous) says…
One thing that makes the unemployment rate go down is for people to run out of unemployment benefits. When the government is no longer sending a person a benefit check they are no longer counted in the unemployment rates. This Does Not Mean They Have Found a Job, just that they are no longer counted as recieving benfits.
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
Unfortunately, the big name scientists back east or on the west coast don't take anything coming from this part of the country very seriously, let alone KU.
Kansas should not put all of their collective eggs in one basket in regards to bioscience, but go after other industry. If the national health insurance debacle takes effect, will bioscience be turned into more government run entities?