Nebraska's Brain Drain Problem: Why do young, educated workers leave the state?

[seaofred92]

http://www.omaha.com/news/plus/nebraska-s-brain-drain-problem-why-do-young-educated-workers/article_418e8465-538a-557f-b1c5-ba27a351e8ad.html

Conventional wisdom suggests that college graduates in Nebraska want to see the world and live in cool cities such as Seattle, San Francisco and New York.

But a University of Nebraska at Omaha researcher contends that there are too few challenging, high-paying jobs in the state to snag and retain highly educated workers.

A new report from the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education provides the latest evidence of Nebraska’s brain drain. The group’s 2018 Progress Report says the “out-migration of Nebraskans with at least a bachelor’s degree continues to be a serious issue.”

“How do we keep them here?” asked UNO researcher Hank Robinson. The answer lies in providing good jobs that pay well and challenge employees to use the skills they gained in college, said Robinson, director of UNO’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

“We don’t need any more minimum wage, no-experience-required jobs,” Robinson said.

Iowa also has a brain drain. “It’s a common lament here, too,” said Liesl Eathington, an Iowa State University economics researcher who helped write a report on Iowa’s workforce last year.

Eathington said her state also produces more educated people than its economy can absorb. The issue of out-migration is not just one of graduates seeking mountains, oceans and metropolises, she said. It’s providing fulfilling jobs that pay well and that keep many of them in Iowa and Nebraska.

 

[NUance]

The brain drain—young graduates leaving Nebraska—is one inevitable effect.  Another is that many of those same graduates return to Nebraska 10 or 15 years later when it comes time to settle down and raise a family.  This second effect helps to offset the brain drain somewhat.  So there's that.  

 

[RedDenver]

The brain drain—young graduates leaving Nebraska—is one inevitable effect.  Another is that many of those same graduates return to Nebraska 10 or 15 years later when it comes time to settle down and raise a family.  This second effect helps to offset the brain drain somewhat.  So there's that.  

Is there evidence to show that grads return later?

Everyone I know that left Nebraska hasn't returned, including myself.

 

[NUance]

Is there evidence to show that grads return later?

Everyone I know that left Nebraska hasn't returned, including myself.

I don't know the percentage.  Several of my college friends returned after a number years and live there today.  Mostly back to Omaha.  I myself moved back to the Midwest, but not to Nebraska.  So I guess I'm basing what I said on my own personal experience.  

 

[Landlord]

Because it's boring.

 

[huKSer]

I blame the demise of Nebraska pay per view, and BTN broadcasting Husker games nation wide

 

[sho]

I always felt the young, as a whole, are more progressive and Nebraska is, how do you say it?  Not.

The conservative will stay, the progressive will leave to be in a place that fits their viewpoint.

@NUance it's funny you say that, most of my college friends that moved away and have never looked back.   A few have come back to the area, for family reasons of some sort, but none of their own choosing.

 

[NUinID]

I guess I have always felt people go to where the jobs are.  My brother graduated UNL back in 1985 with an electrical engineering degree.  Not a ton of those jobs for a recently graduated person in Nebraska.  He got a job working for the Navy in California.  Moved to Chicago after about 7-8 years doing the same thing for McDonald-Douglas.  Got out of Chicago and moved back to the same job with Navy after 3-4 years.  Figured it was better to live where it was warm all year round if the pay was the same.  Is now "retired" and working for a consulting firm out of Florida doing the exact same thing.  

I mean if you have a degree in a high tech field you are moving to the high tech area.  If you have a degree in food science you can work for Conagra in Omaha.    

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I guess I have always felt people go to where the jobs are.  My brother graduated UNL back in 1985 with an electrical engineering degree.  Not a ton of those jobs for a recently graduated person in Nebraska.  He got a job working for the Navy in California.  Moved to Chicago after about 7-8 years doing the same thing for McDonald-Douglas.  Got out of Chicago and moved back to the same job with Navy after 3-4 years.  Figured it was better to live where it was warm all year round if the pay was the same.  Is now "retired" and working for a consulting firm out of Florida doing the exact same thing.  

I mean if you have a degree in a high tech field you are moving to the high tech area.  If you have a degree in food science you can work for Conagra in Omaha.    

I don't know how many jobs ConAgra has left in Omaha after moving their HQ to Chicago.

 

[NUance]

@NUance it's funny you say that, most of my college friends that moved away and have never looked back.   A few have come back to the area, for family reasons of some sort, but none of their own choosing.

Now that you mention it, I guess I was thinking in particular of 4 or 5 people who moved away and then moved back.  But if I look at all of my college buddies who moved away, not a very large percentage moved back to Nebraska.  

 

[HUSKER 37]

I always felt the young, as a whole, are more progressive and Nebraska is, how do you say it?  Not.

The conservative will stay, the progressive will leave to be in a place that fits their viewpoint.

@NUance it's funny you say that, most of my college friends that moved away and have never looked back.   A few have come back to the area, for family reasons of some sort, but none of their own choosing.

I didn't leave until I was 30...unless you count the lost couple of months in Austin, TX seeking cheap tuition in my early twenties...Somehow I now live in a state that's even redder than Nebraska (not that I ever payed that much attention to the whole political thing)..   I moved mainly for the weather...even in Phoenix, if we have 3 or more days of overcast skies, I'm looking for a tall building to jump off of..  My gradeschool aged Niece and Nephew and their parents were the other draw...And now my Son keeps me here.  I do miss the handful of close friends ''back home'' and I think I'm s'posed to be buried NE of Holdrege...but I might just send my ashes.

 

[Ulty]

Lincoln and Omaha seem to have quite a bit to offer for the young modern progressive, but people will go where the best opportunities are.