Staff and wire reports
Posted: Wednesday October 12th, 2005, 10:45 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday October 12th, 2005, 11:29 PM
The intelligent move
if you're looking for a good job and good prospects for the future -- not to
mention good bookstores and restaurants -- is to head for college-grad magnets
such as Seattle or Atlanta and avoid cities like Cleveland or Bakersfield.
At least that's one message gleaned from economist Jesse Shapiro's new study of employment growth and quality of life in cities with high and low concentrations of college graduates.
Shapiro, a University of Chicago research fellow, found that a 10 percent increase in the percentage of college grads living in a metropolitan area produced nearly a 1 percent increase in subsequent job growth. Wages -- and housing prices -- also rose with the percentage of college graduates.
Other researchers have found much the same thing, and attributed it to the fact that better-educated people work smarter, which boosts productivity and generates new jobs.
But that's not the whole story, Shapiro reported in a working paper published recently by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Only about 60 percent of the employment boost from college grads was due to enhanced productivity growth while "roughly one-third of the effect seems to come from more rapid improvement in the quality of life," he found.
Apparently, better-educated people want all kinds of amenities, and that demand creates jobs in trendy boutiques, upscale coffee shops, tweedy bookstores and chic art galleries.
Shapiro found that cities with a high percentage of college graduates had proportionally more restaurants than towns with lower percentages, even after he accounted for income differences.
Sheryl Barbich, president of Greater Bakersfield Vision 2020, agrees that trendy shops and art galleries are desirable, but doesn't agree that Bakersfield is lacking them, at least not as much as the city used to.
"Look around. We're growing it," Barbich said. "It has really changed in the last couple years only."
Barbich pointed to blossoming art galleries and a revitalized downtown as evidence that Bakersfield now offers the type of shops and experiences college-educated people look for.
"Look at even Dagny's (coffee company). Have you been down there lately? It's changing," Barbich said.
Where the grads are (Areas with the largest and smallest percentages of college graduates)
HIGHEST
Seattle 51%
San Francisco 51%
Raleigh, N.C. 50%
Washington 48%
Austin, Texas 45%
Atlanta 43%
Minneapolis 41%
Boston 41%
Lexington, Ky. 39%
San Diego 39%
LOWEST
Santa Ana 8%
Newark, N.J. 10%
Detroit 11%
Cleveland 14%
Bakersfield 16%
Stockton 16%
Toledo, Ohio 18%
Las Vegas 18%
Buffalo, N.Y. 18%
Milwaukee 20%