North Carolina’s population is projected to grow to 12 million by 2030. The North Carolina Chamber plans to be ready for the jobs and economic climate of that time and those plans include new software tools to measure the state’s progress.
The Chamber contracted with RTI International to develop a dashboard that will measure progress on various metrics as 2030 approaches. The North Carolina Chamber Foundation and RTI will unveil the dashboard next Monday in a webinar led by N.C. Chamber President and CEO Lew Ebert.
The economic plan, called North Carolina Vision 2030, kicked off in March. The plan was developed with North Carolina business leaders, local chambers of commerce and others. The initiative targeted four key areas:
- Education and talent supply
- Competitive business climate
- Entrepreneurship and innovation
- Infrastructure and growth leadership
Dashboard 2030 was designed to track North Carolina’s progress in those key areas. The first phase of the system will include metrics and data points intended to be real-time progress indicators. Measures such as the unemployment rate; fourth grade reading comprehension; college completion rates; and energy, water and infrastructure demands are among the indicators that the dashboard will track. Data housed in the system will be accessible to all – not just the business community. Anyone who has an Internet-enabled device will be able to follow North Carolina’s progress on the various measures.
“Dashboard 2030 is designed to provide clear metrics, transparency and accountability,” the N.C. Chamber said.
