Milwaukee on Talent

Posted by Bridget Marquis on June 16, 2010

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Special Report on the city's urgent need for talent adds fuel to the Talent Dividend fire.  As the article points out the Milwaukee region as a whole has an average college attainment rate when compared to the largest 50 metropolitan regions, however the city itself ranks much lower when compared to other large US cities.

Our City Vitals work found this to be the case in a number of cities - the college attainment rates of the core (measured based on the population living within 5 miles of the center of a city) were lower than that of the metropolitan region in 30 of the 50 largest US metros.  However, metros including Seattle, Portland, Chicago and New York were among those with the highest college attainment rates and were also the places with talent concentrated in the core.  In fact the cores of these four cities had college attainment rates that were at least 40 percent higher than their metropolitan regions.

"Recent economic research has found that the greatest "spillover" benefits of having lots of college-educated workers occur in relatively small, densely populated areas. After a few miles, economic blessings - such as the attraction of new businesses and higher wages for workers across the board - erode significantly, the research concludes."

This concept of core vitality is critical to consider for all cities and regions focused on increasing college attainment and achieving the Talent Dividend.