WASHINGTON — Millennials might threaten future economic growth in the Metropolitan Washington area, a leading local economist says.
“Surveys are showing that they’re coming here to work and they’re leaving,” said Stephen Fuller, a public policy professor at George Mason University. “They come here and they get their credentials, and they go back to Des Moines.”
Fuller said millennials find this region too expensive to raise a family. But in Des Moines, Iowa, for example, 61 percent of the homes sold last year were to people 25 to 34 years old.
“This is the fuel of the future workforce,” Fuller said of millennials.
Fuller said affordable housing is critical to a region expected to have 1.1 million more jobs within 30 years.
“I can guarantee – you don’t have enough workers to fill the jobs that are being [created]. Because we never have. And that’s why we have so many long-distance commuters that fill our roads at the outer reaches of our region,” Fuller said.
Fuller’s comments were made during a presentation Wednesday at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Board of Directors meeting.
“The Roadmap for the Washington Region’s Future Economy,” from George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, covers myriad topics related to stimulating future growth.
A failing regional transportation system is of great concern to Fuller and businesses leaders who were surveyed for the report.
“It was all modes,” Fuller observes, saying transportation concerns encompassed more than merely commuting to and from work. “It was that the transportation system didn’t work any time of the day.”
In two weeks, Fuller will give a public presentation of the “Roadmap to the Washington Area’s Future Economy”:
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
7:30-10 a.m.
George Mason University Arlington Campus – Founders Hall
Attendees need to register to attend.
