Good News for Pittsburgh and Michigan “Brain Drain”

Many areas of the country are lamenting the workforce challenges presented by the out-migration of technically skilled college graduates, a “brain drain” for short. Two studies released during the past few days, however, provide positive data to the contrary for Michigan and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metro region.



Michigan

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan released a study showing the large majority of technically educated Michigan university students remain in the state after graduation. Tracking the patterns of approximately 30,000 high-tech sector graduates from 1997 through 2000, the researchers found Michigan retained 79 percent of graduates in the life sciences, information technology and engineering sectors who entered the workforce in high-tech positions. Even more positive for the state’s technology companies, 55 percent of students who moved to Michigan to attend a public university in these fields stayed in the state after graduation.



The study also reveals that graduates who accept a job out-of-state do so primarily for better job opportunities and salaries, rather than any dislike of Michigan. About 21 percent of the graduates polled left Michigan; of these, 53 percent did so because of better job opportunities, 11 percent moved to be closer to family and friends, and seven percent cited Michigan’s four-season climate as their reason for moving elsewhere.



As a result of the study, the following recommendations were made to further strengthen Michigan’s retention of high-tech university graduates:

• Target students in other states with information about the high-tech education and career opportunities available in Michigan;
• Continue to track graduate migration and design Michigan’s attraction strategy based on any pattern shifts that become apparent;
• Continue to educate Michigan’s pre-university and university students about high-tech educational and career opportunities in the state;
• Build a strategy to attract more out-of-state students to Michigan universities; and, 
• Build a “State of Michigan Alumni” strategy to attract Michigan graduates who would consider returning to Michigan.

An eight-page summary of the report is available under News at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation website: http://medc.michigan.org

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh tech firms also received encouraging news last week, as researchers conducting a University of Pittsburgh study found 52 percent of 1999 graduates from the area’s three largest schools (Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne and Pitt) worked in the region. The results may reflect the impact of local and state economic development efforts to reverse the local brain drain, since only 40 percent of 1994 graduates were employed in the area.



While showing strong improvement, only one-third of out-of-state students remained in the Pittsburgh region after graduation in 1999. For comparison, only 20 percent of similar graduates from 1994 stayed in town for employment.



Researchers also found graduates who left were more likely to head to neighboring Northeast states than the Sunbelt.

The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, as a result of the study, recommends that strategies to recruit students and retain graduates or workers should be tailored to specific sector needs and diverse target populations.



For the study, researchers conducted telephone and Internet interviews with more than 2,000 recent graduates. More information and a copy of the report is available by contacting Ron Cichowicz at cich+@pitt.edu



Show ‘em the Money

A common finding of both studies, plus a third survey of Wisconsin graduates, is money – in the form of larger paychecks – was the primary motivator for moving after graduation. For Pittsburgh, despite the city’s lower cost of living than many metro regions, a chance of a higher salary is cited as the main reason for graduates leaving, particularly women and minorities.



Draining Away: Who Is Leaving the State? Where Are They Going?, an August 2001 study of more than 2,000 graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UW-O) in 1980 and 1990, reports that while nearly 80 percent of graduates remained in Wisconsin, alumni working outside the state made 23 percent more than those who remained in the state.



Fifty-eight percent of graduates with doctorate or law degrees left Wisconsin versus only 10 percent of graduates with master's degrees. The study also holds that graduates in math or science-related fields were 50 percent more likely to move out-of-state for employment than other alumni.



Kevin McGee and Isaac Brannon, the two UW-O economists who conducted the study, conclude the focus of public policy addressing the brain drain should be on creating and attracting high-wage employment opportunities for graduates rather than increasing the number of students enrolled through scholarships, incentives, or other means. They suggest adoption of neutral state tax policies that encourage lower overall taxes, instead of tax credits for sectors that traditionally rely more on physical capital than human and intellectual capital (e.g. manufacturing).



The Wisconsin study can be downloaded from http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume14/Vol14no5.pdf