NEXTU, a career empowerment program supporting high school students
seeking careers in STEM and technical fields, is helping Abilene create
“a great pipeline of qualified candidates” for area employers.
When not engaged in your work as a digital nomad, you’re free to wander
around Seattle’s famous Pike Place
Market.
Archive photo courtesy of Puget Sound
Regional Council
Using HighSpeedInternet.com’s list of the top 100 U.S. metros with the
fastest internet speeds as their starting point, connected home services
and products review organization Reviews.org has released its list of
“Best U.S. Cities for Digital Nomads.” Seattle,
Washington, tops the list, followed by Portland, Oregon; Chicago;
Atlanta; and San Jose. Other factors include proximity to airports and
national parks, number of state recreation areas, average Airbnb cost,
number of free wifi hotspots, average download speed and average annual
temperature — though the decision to award more points for higher
average temperature might be questioned by some who are experiencing the
nation’s heat wave. What’s in Seattle’s favor? Among other things, “Seattle
has the most free public hotspots,” said the organization. “For another,
it’s big on coffee (a must-have for many remote workers),” though the
number of coffee shops and brewpubs was not part of the ranking matrix.
While the rankings did not look at state results, we will: California
leads the way with seven cities on the list, including No. 7 San
Francisco, No. 13 Sacramento and No. 16 Los Angeles. Florida and Ohio
host six digital nomad hot spots each, including No. 25 Cleveland and
No. 27 Miami. North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas have five
each, including No. 8 New York City, No. 9 Philadelphia, No. 12 Dallas
and No. 14 Charlotte.
Where to go globally if you’re a digital wanderer? As we reported in
April, Nomad List is the place to find out. Keeps track of the fastest growing remote work hubs. The fastest
growing remote work hubs this year are led by Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Bangkok, Thailand; and Canggu, Bali, Indonesia, followed by four more
Thailand locations in the top 10. Notable at No. 7 was the only European
destination in the top 10: Edinburgh, Scotland, site of the 2022
World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment. The fastest growing
remote work hubs with consistent growth in check-ins over the past five
years (through 2021, before Russia’s attack on Ukraine) were led by
Belgrade, Serbia; Kyiv, Ukraine; Tbilisi, Georgia; Playa del Carmen,
Mexico; and Lisbon, Portugal. — Adam Bruns
Japan-based microcontroller company Renesas is taking its focus on
workplace to new heights. In addition to announcing this week a
company-wide day off called “Renesas Day” on August 12, and the
implementation of “Focus Fridays” completely free of meetings on Fridays
in August, the company is planning a 2,000-job expansion at its 16-acre
Silicon Valley campus in San Jose. While the corporation has not issued
an official announcement, multiple news sources report that Renesas is
making the move on the heels of multiple acquisitions in the
semiconductor arena. “The Bay Area is one of the most important centers
for advanced high-level talent,” Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata told reporter George Avolos of the Bay Area News
Group.
Diamond Cutters Ltd, formed in 1987 with 80 individuals, has grown to
become the largest supplier of diamonds to the luxury watch industry in
Switzerland. “The company has been contributing immensely towards the
national economy of Sri Lanka by earning foreign exchange for the past
33 years deploying a work force of 1,300 in two manufacturing facilities
in Sri Lanka,” said an announcement in June. “It’s with great pleasure
to announce that Diamond Cutters Ltd has taken initiatives to expand its
production capacity in the near future by acquiring a new property based
in Panadura. The new project will create and fulfill the job
opportunities for 1,500 youths in Sri Lanka.” company signed an
agreement with the Board of Investments of Sri Lanka in Colombo on June
24. Panadura is located on the Indian Ocean coast just south of Colombo.
Like the water at the Stadium Swim facility at Circa Resort & Casino in
Las Vegas, Nevada’s economic development practices are as transparent as
possible.
Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Founded in 1998, Good Jobs First’s mission of holding
governments and corporations accountable when it comes to
economic development subsidies has continued to expand via a
number of specialized databases and reports. Now the
organization has redesigned its website, including the
insertion of a paywall for those wishing to download records
from its Violation Tracker and Subsidy Tracker databases.
Among its most recent reports is “Financial Exposure: Rating
the States on Economic Development Transparency,” released
in April. No. 1 Nevada, Connecticut and Illinois ranked
best, but even Nevada’s grade would be a “D” on a report
card, Good Jobs First noted. “States began disclosing
subsidy awards online in 1999,” said Kasia Tarczynska,
senior research analyst and lead author of the study. “Yet
almost half the states failed to score even 20 points out of
100 on our 2022 report card. The states know how, but some
still lack the will to be transparent.”
PHOTO OF THE
DAY
Photo by Navy Petty Officer 3rd Christina
Himes, courtesy of the U.S. Navy and DVIDS
Sailors prepare to connect a fuel hose during a replenishment aboard the
USS Essex during Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac), the world’s largest
international maritime exercise, in the Pacific Ocean, July 15, 2022.
This year’s exercise in and around Hawaii and Southern California
involved more than 25,000 personnel from 26 nations devoted to promoting
and protecting a free and open Indo-Pacific. The biennial exercise,
first held in 1971, this year involved 38 surface ships, more than 170
aircraft, four submarines and more than 30 unmanned systems.
