Mark Muro (@markmuro1) is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
CEOs are hustling to decide what to do with President Trump’s corporate tax cuts. Unsurprisingly many of them are settling on a new round of stock buybacks and probably dividend hikes. Others are weighing takeovers and acquisitions. Financial maneuvers will likely predominate, along with one-time bonuses for employees.
But here’s another idea: Corporations should instead do something with lasting impact and boost their human factors by investing in worker skills—especially digital skills.
Why is worker training the best use of the new windfall for companies large and small? The reason is clear: Nothing matters more in the knowledge economy than workers’ knowledge, just as nothing matters more in a digital age of artificial intelligence and big data than digital skills. Rest (WSJ)