As the digitalization of work expands, place-based solutions can bridge the gaps

One of the most striking developments of the last decade has been the rapid “digitalization” of work—and with it, an urgent demand for skill-building. Digitalization is the infusion of digital skills (though not necessarily higher-end software coding) into the texture of almost every job in the economy. And it has inordinate power to both empower workers or divide them. That’s because gaps in access to digital skills engender disparate access to the nation’s best-paying, most desirable jobs and industries. Such gaps can spawn troublesome divides among not just people, but also places. However, recent shifts in post-pandemic labor market demands coupled with a surge of new federal and state policy experiments are building the potential for a distinctive new policy paradigm—one that addresses the nation’s digitalization divide and the desperate need for skill-building and digital transformation in communities. Specifically, a new set of sizable “place-based” investment policies—focused on boosting innovation, tech clusters, and workforce training—suggests a potential playbook for responding more effectively to the need for not just digital inclusion, but also improved local opportunity more broadly. Place-based initiatives are, by definition, place-focused—they seek to benefit people and economies by targeting specific geographies of concern. Dynamic place-based business, academic, civic, and neighborhood networks are essential to delivering strong place-based gains.