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Sure. I know in Iowa there's a huge problem of all the smaller cities and towns losing all their young educated people to places like Chicago, Minneapolis, Des Moines and to an extent Iowa City. People go away to college and then move on. They very rarely return to their small town in the middle of nowhere. It's frustrating to many towns and cities across the state, as they put the money and effort into bringing up some of the most educated kids of any state in the country, and then they all take off and leave. At least Des Moines has grown enough over the past 20 years that it's starting to get on the radar for a lot of younger educated people in the state. The metro is booming right now and the economy is great.
Chicago drains away a lot of young educated people from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa from what I've noticed in my years here. Especially Michigan, there must be tens of thousands of people who grew up in that state who moved here for more white collar type jobs.
Not sure about the other states, but in Iowa, a very, very small population moves away permanently. Maybe a few years after college at most, then they goto Des Moines. It has a lot more to do with the Iowa/ISU game than the economy as well.
If you're qualified enough or rich enough, you're not going to bother living in Sac. You're going to move to the Bay Area or the Beach Cities in Southern California.
I sort of feel the same way. I've been kicking my butt so hard at my job, going way above the expectations and realistic capabilities of my position, and it's barely worth it, and currently we're drowning in debt because my wife just had a child and we can't support ourselves on my income alone. This same job with the same level of expertise/experience would yield 50%+ more in income in Chicago or Minneapolis, and the cost of living simply isn't that much higher. It's hard to tell if it's the industry I'm in (real estate), the economy, or my individual situation, but come next review time if things don't change for the better we'll have to seriously consider relocating again.
I think there are a lot of variables to this. Of all my white collar friends the most successful and well paid actually live in Cleveland. I live in Chicago but I don't think it's doing any wonders for my specific career field (civil engineering). Others may have different experiences.
What's really sad is what brain drain is doing to our parents. Every year after college graduation it seems people are going to big, popular cities for work. Nothing new there, not really, but there has always been a perception that many will return to their hometowns (suburbs of mid-to-large cities) in their 30s. A guy who dreamt and always talked about moving from Cleveland (metro) during high school will work and have fun in DC, then move back to the Cleveland suburbs because it's his hometown, arguably a good place to raise a family, and his friends returned as well.
And I'm telling you that's not the case anymore, at least not to the degree it's been in previous years. I think there's going to be significant damage and accelerated demographic changes in what were highly desired suburbs in the 90s, because people are just not returning like they used to. The 30-year-olds are not returning to mid-tier city suburbs and small towns to raise families, and many of the suburbs that were absolutely flourishing or stable in the 90s are declining every year. So few educated, productive people return because of the economic depresion; you go and stay where the job is, nothing else matters. And I'm sure it doesn't help that most professional-types don't even finish school until their upper 20s/early 30s, and then start working somewhere. That's just more years spent away from their hometown, and how many 40-year-olds can realisitically start over because of hometown loyalties? Some, but probably not many.
I don't think we've seen or acknowledged a fraction of what brain drain is doing to the suburbs, because so far it seems like we only focus on the core city. But I'm telling you people are NOT returning in their 30s, and you can see it in a lot of parents' eyes when we visit and notice an utter dearth of 30-year-olds. I saw it last weekend during a get-together with some friends, as jobs and schools and desires to move have pushed us away from Cleveland. And it was clearly hard on our parents, but what can you do? Cities suffering = suburbs suffering - no question at all.
Not sure about the other states, but in Iowa, a very, very small population moves away permanently. Maybe a few years after college at most, then they goto Des Moines. It has a lot more to do with the Iowa/ISU game than the economy as well.
Where did you find that stat? From googling I see that Iowa and North Dakota are #1 and #2 in the country for loss of young population to other states. They're not all going off to college and then rushing to Des Moines....they're going to large cities with their degrees. Iowa has one of the highest % of high school grads who attend college, and there aren't tens of thousands of job openings for college educated people in the state every year.
Of the 9 kids on our block who played together all the time growing up in the 80's in Coralville, IA they're now located:
1 in San Fran
2 in Chicago
4 in Phoenix
1 in Des Moines
1 in NYC
1 in Providence, RI
Cousins, people I went to college with, friends in high school, they're all spread around from NYC to Florida to Chicago to LA and San Fran. The ones left in the state all went to Des Moines, Iowa city or Cedar Rapids. Most of them didn't get 4-year degrees, although the ones in DSM and IC mostly did I guess.
The HUGE problem are the hundreds of smaller towns around the state, especially in the western parts, that are totally bleeding population. The overall state population is still growing because just the Des Moines and Iowa City/Cedar Rapids areas alone are outpacing the entire state's population change. Those areas are gaining faster than everything else is losing.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 08-27-2013 at 08:37 AM..
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