According to a study by iLabs, the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Center for Innovation Research, and convened by the Detroit Regional Chamber, more college graduates are staying in Michigan after graduation.
The study indicates there is a 12 percent increase, from 51 percent in 2007 to 63 percent today, of college graduates staying in Michigan to work. There were 7,054 participants in the study, who graduated across Michigan’s 15 public universities and were 28 years old or younger, single, not currently pursuing a degree and born in the United States.
The retention of these graduates is a great sign that Michigan is heading in the right direction. The state has been struggling for a long time, especially during the 2008 recession, when one of the biggest hits was the Big Three automotive companies in Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler.
What will help retain these college graduates to keep them from leaving the state are strong job opportunities.
Opportunities are what’s going to keep these college graduates from leaving the state. Without an intriguing or reasonably paid opportunity, these graduates will have no reason to stay in Michigan to work.
And nor should they. None of these graduates have an obligation to stay in Michigan. They’ll only stay for the right opportunity, and if a better one presents itself in Chicago or New York City, then they should leave the state.
The best thing for Michigan to do is to promote these growing opportunities as best as it can. The more these opportunities are promoted, the more graduates will consider to staying in state.
But even with an increase in promotion of these job opportunities, it might not matter as the potential increase of more graduates staying in state is relative to the opportunity and the degree the graduate attained. A person who graduated with an engineering or food science degree might find more opportunities to work in Michigan with the resurgence of the automotive companies and in the aptly named “Cereal City,” Battle Creek, Mich.
But somebody who graduate with political science or journalism degree might not find as great of opportunities in state and choose to go elsewhere.
Graduating students, especially ones who are in-state students, who are thinking about how to take the next step in their life need to value the opportunity more than the state itself. Although some might have strong ties to Michigan or do not want to live far away from their family, need to think about what decision will be in the best interest of their future.
Michigan definitely is heading in the right direction and doing something right to retain its college graduates. As long as these opportunities keep coming, then there is no reason Michigan cannot return to economic prominence.
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