A new study finds that Wisconsin not only attracted new college-educated residents, but retained them as well. HireAHelper’s latest report looks at states that college-educated Americans are moving to and from, and Wisconsin experienced 110% net gain, ranking it 4th most popular state– just behind Nevada, South Carolina and Washington state. That means that more college-educated residents moved in than out, at a ratio unheard of for the rest of the country.
The report seeks to measure ‘brain drain’- the phenomenon of college-educated individuals leaving certain areas in the country, leaving those places at economic risk and widening gaps in the talent market. There’s also the flipside to this idea with ‘brain gain’– places like Wisconsin that are benefiting from this increase in talent.
Overall Takeaways:
Americans with a college degree were 73% more likely to cite “a new job” as their reason for moving last year
Two of the top three destination states for Americans with college degrees — Washington (+169%) and Nevada (+111%) — don’t have state income taxes
New York state (-56%) had a higher net “brain drain” than Alabama (-45%)
Four of the top six metros college-educated Americans were most likely to leave are in California
Methodology:
“College-educated American” was defined as, “someone who has completed at least an undergraduate/Bachelor’s degree, including a master’s degree, doctorate, or similarly advanced degree.”)
Net gain and loss for states and metropolitan areas were calculated as follows:
number of people with a college degree moving into the state or city, to
the number of people with a college degree moving out of the state or city, expressed as a percentage (%)
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