By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A new report released by Michigan Future Inc. says that the places that are doing the best economically are the places with adults who have four-year degrees, and Michigan has a long way to go to become one of those places.
The report, Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge-Based Economy, says the state ranks 34th out of the 50 states in the proportion of adults with four-year degrees.
In Grand Rapids, the number of adults with four-year degrees ranks the city 45th out of 53 metro areas of one million or more people. As a result, our per capita income ranks 49th.
"If you want high prosperity, the key is having adults with four-year degrees," says Lou Glazer of Michigan Future Inc. "This is an economy driven by talent, you can't get prosperous without it."
But the news isn't all bad.
Although Michigan suffered seven consecutive years of job losses, the report says that high education attainment industries brought the state nearly 47,000 jobs—40,000 of them in metro Grand Rapids and metro Detroit.
Those industries are primarily in six sectors: information; finance and insurance; management of companies; professional and technical services; health care and education. The average wage in these industries is nearly $53,000, compared to some $32,000 in all other industries.
"The message from the data is that the key to economic growth is talent, the report states. "Quite simply, in a flattening world, economic development priority one is to prepare, retain and attract talent."
Source: Lou Glazer, Michigan Future Inc.; Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge-Based Economy
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at
[email protected].
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