A new online magazine launched this week aims to attract more young professionals to Michigan by making the state seem more inviting, local economic officials said.
The e-magazine, MiLife MiTimes (pronounced My-life My-times), was created by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, or MEDC.
The e-magazine is directed toward members of the "creative class," which includes recent college graduates in creative fields entering the workforce, said Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan and business marketing for the MEDC. He added that some people move out of Michigan after college to explore other regions.
MiLife MiTimes creators plan to show the young professionals that Michigan can be an inviting place to live and work through features on restaurants, the arts, music and nightclubs, in addition to information on the state economy and job market, he said.
"This class of people is going to be very important for the future of the state, and we want to capture them," Lorenz said. "We want them to know that they can be comfortable and enjoy living here as much as any other place in the country.
"If we lose this class of people, we will have lost our future, and we can't lose that knowledge base."
MiLife MiTimes is a part of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's "Cool Cities" initiative, which aims to attract young professionals to live and work in Michigan by creating communities that match their lifestyles, said Maura Campbell, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth and the "Cool Cities" initiative.
The job market tends to expand to where a large pool of talent is located, Campbell said, adding that if more young people choose to live and work in Michigan, more jobs could come to the state.
"If (companies) can see a place that has the diversity of talent and knowledge in workers that they are seeking for their workforce, oftentimes that's a huge component in why they expand or move to a certain area," she said.
Rosalyn Jones, an urban marketing specialist for the MEDC, said she worked with a team to find places of interest across the state, traveling to cities such as Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie in addition to metropolitan areas.
"Michigan certainly is doing a lot of innovative things, but we don't want to sit back and get comfortable with anything we're doing," Jones said. "We want to continue to be aggressive and compete with other states for top talent."
