Still Home of the Free – Job Growth and Immigrant Start-ups

70% of new job growth in the United States, according to the Kauffman Report, is the result of start-ups. Many of these new start-ups are created by people who immigrate to be part of a nation that offers opportunity for them to found and grow a company.  Bloomberg reported “new entrepreneurs are now back on the rise” and that “Immigrants are far more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans.”  Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, is an immigrant from South Africa fought critics to build his manufacturing plants in the United States and proved to established corporations it is possible to build and profit here.

The STEM Careers Tours includes some amazing start-ups here in Pittsburgh.  Many are native-born, all have chosen the Greater Pittsburgh area as the hub and center of companies that are growing globally: Astrobotic is building a space port, delivery systems, and robots for mining on the moon; Platypus combined the computing of an iPhone and a miniature airboat to build a robotic search and research vehicle in floods and a robotic measurement system in waterways across the globe; 4Moms brings robotic technology to baby strollers, playpens and bouncy seat; First Insight have created software to complete the market testing that used to be done by focus groups and test marketing; Cybergenetics has patented a DNA testing system used in forensic research and criminal conviction.

And so I celebrate the 4^th of July today, hopeful that we will recover from what some call the Great Recession and mindful of the need to teach entrepreneurship, economics, and ethics to all the students I have the fortune to work with!

There are still a few seats open on next week’s STEM Career Tours.  Registration has been opened for individual days until the bus is full. https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eaoxx7hx9b8a529e&oseq=&c=&ch=