Interesting bit from a blog I stumbled over, “TechBoise”.

http://techboise.com/hp-layoffs-for-boise/#comment-2322

“Here’s my news tip for Boise (especially any elected or wannabe/soon to be elected officials):

LaserJet’s and DRAM are not going to carry the valley like they once did.

Can we expect to see more layoffs in Boise? It’s too hard to realistically predict any specific events tied to any specific market activity. Maybe not now. Maybe not in the 100’s or 1,000’s at a time but over time we will see continued adjustments as business and economic situations change.

Unless HP or Micron invest in new industries and actually base them out of Boise, we will see continual attrition.

And where will those nice corporate salaries go to? Well there’s always Morrison Knudsen, WGI, Albertsons, OreIda, Boise Cascade, Zilog, or more likely they’ll go out of state.

Boise has very few solid medium sized businesses here (MPC has been limping along for longer than most people thought they would). We need a good base of medium sized businesses to support our economy and in another 5-10 years replace the growth that Micron and HP brought here during the 80’s and 90’s. BVEP will never get a medium sized business to relocate to the Boise Valley.

However if I were Mayor Beiter, Governor Otter or the head of BVEP I wouldn’t be wasting my time and taxpayer dollars going to Cuba over and over again without anything to show for it. I’d be in the lobby of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems every month doing whatever I could to encourage them to not only keep their newly acquired Boise presence but expand here. (We’ve got this great complex, or two, by the River on Park Center no one is currently using.)

IMNHO (In my never humble opinion) our best bet is to start investing in our local small technology focused businesses. And by investing I don’t mean handouts. I mean giving them the real resources they need:

• Well educated college graduates (which starts at high school now)
• A good statewide infrastructure that includes roads and broadband
• And a local government that *gets it* and can evangelize for them

Local tech companies provide the best opportunity for growth with the least amount of investment. Local tech companies don’t need any tax breaks to be here, they already made that decision. Today’s tech companies don’t consume major amounts or electricity and water. Today’s tech companies provide an average wage that makes the average wage at Micron laughable. And finally, today’s tech companies provide their employees the skills to go off and start other tech companies, not go off and work in a call center.”

Here is a comment from that post that caught my eye:

“And the fact that every comp sci grad from BSU has on average 3 job offers before graduation (and many leave the state) definitely highlights a critical need to increase the supply of highly-trained local tech workers. You’re correct in asserting that this should start at the high school level (if not sooner).”