Hire Education
Eliminate Brain Drain
The Tulsa Metro Chamber hosted a regional higher education forum to discuss how to clog the “brain drain” to other metro regions. In other words, how can Tulsa keep our new graduates and young professionals from taking flight to other cities and states? Fast forward, and today, Tulsa’s Young Professionals are charging forward to advance Tulsa’s future. The nation’s hottest commodity in the next decade is talented, young professionals. Metro regions all face a growing competition to attract and retain young professionals to supply its future workforce.
Forecasts & Trends
- Two baby boomers exit the workforce for every one entering
- The 25-44 year old age group will decline by 15% over the next 15 years
- Jobs continue to grow while the workforce steadily decreases lending to an impending crisis of a 10 million worker shortage in the US by 2010
- Young professionals are very discerning about where they choose to live and work and aren’t afraid to move
- A drop in birth rates from the 1960’s through the 1980’s is raising a “battle for brains”
- Companies will make location decisions based on access to talented and creative people rather than expecting these individuals to come to them
- Two-thirds of highly mobile 25-34 year olds with college degrees say they will decide where they live first, and then look for a job
- Four out of five new businesses are started by Gen Xers
- Ninety percent of all US communities lost talent in the last decade
