Story by Ronni Mott
Photos by Roy Adkins

For many urban planners and economic developers, the “Rise of the Creative Class” by Professor Richard Florida is a bible of sorts. The book, first published in 2002 and updated in 2003, put substance to the notion that the most significant change driving American culture today is “the rise of human creativity as the key factor in our economy and society.”

Florida argued for a new classification of worker—a la the Working Class or Service Class—calling it the “Creative Class.” He defined this new class as a blend of knowledge workers—high-tech contractors, professionals and teachers—and the “core creative” populace: artists, musicians and other people in the work force dedicated to creativity. Their creativity produces tangible things: new products, new formulations, artwork, design and architecture, computer programs, and turning on lightbulbs over students’ heads, to name just a few.

The idea has such resonance among planners and politicians that attracting the Creative Class is the goal for cities and regions across the country looking for a boost into the 21st century economy. The solutions that municipal leaders turn to—building a vibrant art scene, cheering a return to urban living and neighborhoods, increasing nightlife options, encouraging tolerance for different lifestyles and cultures—are those prescribed for towns that want to position themselves to attract Creative Class workers and, hence, re-tool their local economies.

So what is an unassuming capital city in the Deep South supposed to do if it’s already well stocked with Creative Class types?

In the first edition of “Rise of the Creative Class,” Jackson was singled out for its significant population of Creative Class workers given its Metro population range (at the time, 250,000-500,000), ranking seventh in Creative Class per-capita population in that range, and 21st overall in the country. On the overall Creative Class Index documented in the 2002 edition, Jackson ranked 75th on the list, dragged down by the “innovation” number that relies on the per-capita number of patents filed from the region. In the updated edition, Jackson climbed to 53rd overall—in part because of the sheer percentage of workers who fit the demographic.

According to Florida, a whopping 31 percent of Jackson’s work force is in the Creative Class. So how did Jackson get there? It seems we can thank our mix of government, medicine and higher education for a big chunk of it. As Mississippi’s largest city and its capital city, Jackson is the center of government and education in the state. Law firms, accounting firms, lobbyists, non-profits and educational service companies abound in Jackson. To Jackson’s urban professionals it’s clear—ask around, and you’ll find plenty of friends-offriends who work in government, non-profits, private law firms—or, perhaps most significantly, professionals who move frequently between public, private and non-profit sectors.

Jackson is also the epicenter of an extraordinary boom in medicine, with expansion going on at all the area’s large hospitals. The University of Mississippi Medical Center—with its place cemented in history as the location of the first human lung transplant and first ape-to-human heart transplant—is in many ways a catalyst for Creative Class migration to Jackson, employing more than 7,500 people with a payroll nearing $300 million per year. Three other huge health-care drivers in the Jackson Metro area are St. Dominic Health Services, Baptist Health Systems and River Oaks Health System, collectively employing another 7,500 people and providing many specialized medical services, ranging from cancer centers, to women’s services and children’s hospitals.

The Jackson Metro is also home to a Veterans Affairs medical facility and the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, the state’s publicly funded psychiatric facility. All told, the medical services industry in the Jackson Metro was estimated in 2006 at 15,110 workers in Hinds County (and more in the tri-county area), with an economic impact in the billions.

The U.S. Census lumps health care with education and social assistance, but puts that category at about 26 percent of the overall work force in Jackson’s Hinds County, while government workers make up an additional 21 percent of the county’s work force. But perhaps the most significant number that lends itself to the Creative Class argument is the U.S. Census number for managers and professionals in Hinds County—they make up nearly 30 percent of the Hinds County work force.

Anecdotally, the preponderance of attorneys, accountants, social workers, teachers and other support professionals plays out a certain Creative Class argument every day in Jackson—if “attorney by day, musician by night” is a cliché, then Jackson’s watering holes brimming with open-mic nights give the cliché legs. And when you add together the broader Creative Class of professionals and Jackson’s “creative core” of musicians, artists and programmers (people who literally create day in and day out for a living), you start to get a good sense of what you encounter in the
Jackson work force. In Mississippi’s capital city, there’s a palpable depth of talent, both in the boardroom and in the art studio—and at night and on weekends.

U.S. Census data shows that Hinds County has more than 10,000 workers in “arts, entertainment, and recreation, accommodation and food services,” which is a bit broad and likely includes some candidates outside the Creative Class, but it points to one other “center” that Jackson occupies—the center of arts and culture in Mississippi. Home of the Mississippi Museum of Art, the International Ballet Competition, the Eudora Welty House, New Stage Theatre and many other amenities, the notion that nearly 8 percent of the Hinds/Jackson work force is involved in arts and entertainment isn’t outside the realm of the possible.

What’s next? If education statistics are an indicator, then the Hinds County’s Creative Class will continue to grow as the decade ends. Over the five-year period between 2006 and 2011, Hinds County is expected to see an 11.3 percent boost to its college graduate population, despite the fact that total population is expected to fall 0.4 percent over that same time frame. The number of people with graduate degrees is expected to increase nearly 7 percent.

Being a college-medical-professional-capital city has its work force advantages, apparently. When they write the next song about the Deep South, “Jackson’s Creative Class Will Rise Again” might be an appropriate title. ¢Florida argued for a new classification of worker—a la the Working Class or Service Class—calling it the “Creative Class.” He defined this new class as a blend of knowledge workers—high-tech contractors, professionals and teachers—and the “core creative” populace: artists, musicians and other people in the work force dedicated to creativity. Their creativity produces tangible things: new products, new formulations, artwork, design and architecture, computer programs, and turning on lightbulbs over students’ heads, to name just a few.

The idea has such resonance among planners and politicians that attracting the Creative Class is the goal for cities and regions across the country looking for a boost into the 21st century economy. The solutions that municipal leaders turn to—building a vibrant art scene, cheering a return to urban living and neighborhoods, increasing nightlife options, encouraging tolerance for different lifestyles and cultures—are those prescribed for towns that want to position themselves to attract Creative Class workers and, hence, re-tool their local economies.

So what is an unassuming capital city in the Deep South supposed to do if it’s already well stocked with Creative Class types?

In the first edition of “Rise of the Creative Class,” Jackson was singled out for its significant population of Creative Class workers given its Metro population range (at the time, 250,000-500,000), ranking seventh in Creative Class per-capita population in that range, and 21st overall in the country. On the overall Creative Class Index documented in the 2002 edition, Jackson ranked 75th on the list, dragged down by the “innovation” number that relies on the per-capita number of patents filed from the region. In the updated edition, Jackson climbed to 53rd overall—in part because of the sheer percentage of workers who fit the demographic.

According to Florida, a whopping 31 percent of Jackson’s work force is in the Creative Class. So how did Jackson get there? It seems we can thank our mix of government, medicine and higher education for a big chunk of it. As Mississippi’s largest city and its capital city, Jackson is the center of government and education in the state. Law firms, accounting firms, lobbyists, non-profits and educational service companies abound in Jackson. To Jackson’s urban professionals it’s clear—ask around, and you’ll find plenty of friends-offriends who work in government, non-profits, private law firms—or, perhaps most significantly, professionals who move frequently between public, private and non-profit sectors.

Jackson is also the epicenter of an extraordinary boom in medicine, with expansion going on at all the area’s large hospitals. The University of Mississippi Medical Center—with its place cemented in history as the location of the first human lung transplant and first ape-to-human heart transplant—is in many ways a catalyst for Creative Class migration to Jackson, employing more than 7,500 people with a payroll nearing $300 million per year. Three other huge health-care drivers in the Jackson Metro area are St. Dominic Health Services, Baptist Health Systems and River Oaks Health System, collectively employing another 7,500 people and providing many specialized medical services, ranging from cancer centers, to women’s services and children’s hospitals.

The Jackson Metro is also home to a Veterans Affairs medical facility and the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, the state’s publicly funded psychiatric facility. All told, the medical services industry in the Jackson Metro was estimated in 2006 at 15,110 workers in Hinds County (and more in the tri-county area), with an economic impact in the billions.

The U.S. Census lumps health care with education and social assistance, but puts that category at about 26 percent of the overall work force in Jackson’s Hinds County, while government workers make up an additional 21 percent of the county’s work force. But perhaps the most significant number that lends itself to the Creative Class argument is the U.S. Census number for managers and professionals in Hinds County—they make up nearly 30 percent of the Hinds County work force.

Anecdotally, the preponderance of attorneys, accountants, social workers, teachers and other support professionals plays out a certain Creative Class argument every day in Jackson—if “attorney by day, musician by night” is a cliché, then Jackson’s watering holes brimming with open-mic nights give the cliché legs. And when you add together the broader Creative Class of professionals and Jackson’s “creative core” of musicians, artists and programmers (people who literally create day in and day out for a living), you start to get a good sense of what you encounter in the
Jackson work force. In Mississippi’s capital city, there’s a palpable depth of talent, both in the boardroom and in the art studio—and at night and on weekends.

U.S. Census data shows that Hinds County has more than 10,000 workers in “arts, entertainment, and recreation, accommodation and food services,” which is a bit broad and likely includes some candidates outside the Creative Class, but it points to one other “center” that Jackson occupies—the center of arts and culture in Mississippi. Home of the Mississippi Museum of Art, the International Ballet Competition, the Eudora Welty House, New Stage Theatre and many other amenities, the notion that nearly 8 percent of the Hinds/Jackson work force is involved in arts and entertainment isn’t outside the realm of the possible.

What’s next? If education statistics are an indicator, then the Hinds County’s Creative Class will continue to grow as the decade ends. Over the five-year period between 2006 and 2011, Hinds County is expected to see an 11.3 percent boost to its college graduate population, despite the fact that total population is expected to fall 0.4 percent over that same time frame. The number of people with graduate degrees is expected to increase nearly 7 percent.

Being a college-medical-professional-capital city has its work force advantages, apparently. When they write the next song about the Deep South, “Jackson’s Creative Class Will Rise Again” might be an appropriate title.