For Immediate Release: January 2008

The American Assembly recently requested Optimal researchers to contribute a chapter for the "Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Areas: Economic Development in Weak Markets" publication. Mark Turner, Laurel Davis, and Andres Cruz co-authored, "Industry Clusters, Employment, and Opportunity" that was included at the assembly meeting last November in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It is an analysis of which employment clusters hold the greatest promise for job creation and potential advancement for lower-income and minority workers.

The Assembly commissions such papers to bring about highly focused discussions for assembly meetings. A summary of the meeting report can be downloaded at www.americanassembly.org.  Brookings Institution Press is publishing the contributing papers, findings, and policy recommendations in Retooling for Growth: Building a 21st Century Economy in America’s Older Industrial Areas.  It can be ordered from the Brookings Institution Press by calling 800-537-5487 or 410-516-6965 or by email, hfscustserv@press.jhu.edu.

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Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a nonpartisan, public policy research consulting firm in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Optimal is committed to supplying insightful program evaluation, cost-benefit and effectiveness analyses, custom econometric modeling, and market analyses for decision makers in both the public and private sectors.

Optimal serves numerous government and commercial clients, including federal and state agencies, community-based organizations, business associations, and law firms. 

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Mark Turner at 301.918.7301, mturner@optimalsolutionsgroup.com. 
Tracye Turner at 301.918.7302, tturner@optimalsolutionsgroup.com.