Where the innovation (and job growth) lies...

I just picked up a valuable tidbit from Bruce Nussbaum's BusinessWeek.com blog, NussbaumOnDesign.  In it, he quoted economist and former BusinessWeek writer Michael Mandel, who asserts that the coming economic recovery will be fueled by "the communications sector, broadly defined."  Of course, as someone who has been known to dabble in communications, this came as a welcome surprise.

Here's what Mandel wrote on his blog:

"Broadly speaking, the communications sector, broadly defined, seems to be recovering before the rest of the economy. This may be telling us something about the shape of the coming recovery."

(image courtesy:  http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/the-two-track-economy-the-coming-communications-boom/)

Internet Publishing and Search is clearly the sector where innovators and designers have been, and will continue to, create and grow new business models and bring the power of design thinking to the masses.  And with the continuing adoption of Web-based applications and mobile devices, the sector seems to be as close to recession-proof as anything out there.

More Mandel:
"I’m going to put myself out on a limb here. I think that this coming recovery will be driven by a communications boom, including a media boom. This includes everything from Google, to Apple, to Facebook, to mobile payment, to health-related applications, to my new company Visible Economy LLC (I am putting my money where my mouth is!)

That suggests we may have a two-track economy for a while. Communications and related areas may have good times, adding jobs and growing. But the rest of economy may bounce along the bottom for a while, especially if local and state governments have to start tightening their belts several notches.