What happened to the brain drain? (Fort Wayne, Evansville: apartment, to rent, home)

[Berteau]

10+ years ago when I lived in Indiana I would always hear about the “brain drain” in the media. What ever happened to this. Did we just move on from it or has it less of a problem now?

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Berteau

10+ years ago when I lived in Indiana I would always hear about the “brain drain” in the media. What ever happened to this. Did we just move on from it or has it less of a problem now?

Most of the “brain gain” areas in Indiana are highly concentrated in Hamilton County, all the suburban cities north of Indy. Most of the smaller cities and rural areas have brain drain issues:

[sheerbliss]

Big cities that bright young people might have moved to ten years ago have become less desirable places to live.

[ColdAilment]

I know South Bend-Mishawaka, Elkhart-Goshen and Evansville and Fort Wayne, which largely makes up Indiana's medium sized cities, are all constantly trying to drive new projects and amenities to attract "young professionals". The apartment boom in South Bend has been huge, so to an extent I think it's working. All these cities are also competing for the regional cities intiative funds from the state.

[censusdata]

There are two issues at play with brain drain, the media only understands the part about college grads moving to or away from places. Just as big an issue is the size of each generation. Gen X and today's Gen Z kids are much fewer in number than Boomers or Millennials so you could gain college grads from one of the smaller gens relative to other areas yet have a decrease in new college grads in X place. Starting in 2008 fertility rates (average children per woman) crashed in the USA to Europe / Russia levels and have continued ticking down since then. So we are looking are permanent labor shortages in all areas which means higher wages top to bottom. Logically fewer young people will chose to take on college tuition debt when they can make $15 to $20 in a service job right out of high school. Shortages in skilled labor will have to be solved by target immigration rather than drawing in college grads from other places in the USA.

[Serious Conversation]

The best jobs are generally heavily concentrated in and around the larger cities, and to some degree, universities. That's why you have an influx of higher achieving young people in and around Indy vs. small town/rural Indiana.

[indy_317]

I work with college kid interns. Many who are from smaller towns and cities within the state say there is nothing to go back to. The better paying jobs are either running a factory, skilled trades, and medical (RN and up). Even then, career growth could be limited and the career pathways very few. Many who are in the Indy area like that area. It is the center of the state so many could see themselves staying and the bulk have done so. Others who have moved away, but want to stay in the lower Midwest region, often look at Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, etc. as options. The thing is, while a brain may relocate back to the area they grew up, if a kid moves to the other side of the Ohio River, that counts as a loss for Indiana. But they really just moved back home (Home being New Albany or SE Indiana).

Also, young people tend to gravitate toward areas with other young people and that trend is mostly urban cores near the downtown area, or in trendy areas. Many of these happen to be on the Kentucky side for the Louisville metro area and the Ohio side for the Cincinnati metro area.

Most of the people I know from the past decades (including my own generation) who left to far away areas wanted the big city lifestyle. A few went to California, others Chicago, and some DC area. I know one guy who was from the Indy area who landed in NYC. I'm sure there are a few others from high school that I don't know about. Some other cities or states where Indiana raised and educated people I know landed in were Florida, Texas, Nashville metro, Charlotte, and Memphis. These are relocations over two decades and were moves before these areas became popular.

A small number who came from afar do tend to land farther away from Indiana, and even the Midwest, after school. Not really a brain drain as they weren't really residents anyway.

I think Indiana just gets somewhat hosed in this area because three big metro areas that actually include parts of Indiana have the bulk of the metro area on the other side of the state line. To make matters worse, the areas likely to draw young people to rent an apartment also happen to be on the wrong side of the state line.