Albany tops Aspen Institute 'inclusive tech city' list

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL), Aspen Institute, and Heartland Forward released their "economy forward framework" Monday, the first framework to measure inclusive economic growth in mid-sized American cities. Albany-Schenectady-Troy topped the list as number two in the "forward ready" metropolitan areas, beating out 38 mid-sized cities around the country for its inclusive economic growth trajectory, having stable and consistently growing knowledge economies.

The analysis took a look at the diversity of tech program enrollment, labor force participation by race and sex, and local ownership of firms, which are strong indicators of whether or not a city's tech growth is creating accessible opportunities. Traditional metrics, which include jobs created or average wage, leave out more nuanced analyses that address the inclusion, diversity, and resilience of jobs.

To put Tulsa Innovation Labs' new methodology into action, they compared 38 mid-sized cities, with a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) population between 750,000 and 1.5 million, based on their knowledge economy trajectory and their unique analysis of inclusive growth metrics.

Inclusive tech cities:

Albany-Schenectady-Troy was topped only by Salt Lake City, Utah, and was trailed closely by Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut. Forward-ready cities were classified as generally having stable and consistently growing knowledge economies, and are moving in the right direction, according to the study.