(The Center Square) – The latest look at Wisconsin’s brain drain doesn’t focus exclusively on the number of people who leave the state.
University of Wisconsin think tank The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy said the problem is that Wisconsin doesn’t attract enough college-educated, career-track people to the state.
“Wisconsin has spent years asking why its educated people leave. For nearly half a century, the more unusual fact has been how few educated people from elsewhere arrive,” the report stated.
The report looks at Wisconsin’s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, and noted there is a huge difference between who is moving into each.
“UW-Madison gives Wisconsin an unusual opening. It already brings thousands of talented people from elsewhere to the state. Many will appropriately leave again. But for several years they are already here, studying, working and building relationships. Whether more of them build careers in Wisconsin depends partly on what they find when they graduate,” the authors wrote.
As for Milwaukee, the report said it’s a different reality.
“Milwaukee does not lose college graduates unusually fast for a metropolitan area of its size. It receives them unusually slowly,” the report notes. “From 2010 to 2024, employment in information, finance and insurance, professional and technical services, and management of companies fell 2.9% in the four-county Milwaukee area. Nationally it rose 29.1%; in Dane County it rose 30.9%. Milwaukee underperformed the nation in all four sectors, and their share of private employment in the region fell while the national share rose.”
The report does not offer any suggestions to reverse Milwaukee’s performance. Instead, it ends with a conclusion that Wisconsin’s problem is not keeping college graduates, particularly those with ties to Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin-born college graduates are relatively likely to stay, and returnees make up an unusually large share of educated arrivals. The harder problem is attracting people with many alternatives and little prior reason to choose Wisconsin. Jobs are part of the answer,” the report stated.
This post was originally published on The Center Square.