Senior Policy Analyst

Across Nebraska, May was a time for high schools and colleges to send forth new graduates into the world and for past graduates to return home for class and school reunions. The ritual has been going on for nearly as long as Nebraska has been a state.  

However, the numbers of Nebraskans who decide to move away after high school or college has changed over the years, with more and more opting to leave the Cornhusker state. Based on 2000 Census Data, Nebraska ranked as the tenth most heavily out-migrated state in the country for young, single, college educated people. 

Matt Smith of Fort Calhoun and Jennifer Davis of Lincoln are two Nebraska graduates who will be leaving the state after their June wedding. Davis, who graduated from Lincoln High School, has been teaching in Marysville, Kansas since she graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2006. She was one of a few select recipients of the Kansas Horizon Award, which recognizes teachers who do an exemplary job during their first year of teaching. 

 “There were jobs in Nebraska; they just weren’t the right fit,” Davis said. “Probably half of the teachers in my methods class also took jobs outside of Nebraska.”  

While Davis has enjoyed success in Kansas, her fiancé, a 2008 UNL architect graduate has a job waiting in California. Smith also said it wasn’t due to lack of opportunity in Nebraska.  

“Omaha has plenty of jobs. I had been there and done that, living not too far away,” Smith said. “I wanted to experience something new.” 

“Brain drain,” is discussed in detail in the Platte Institute’s recently released study Nebraska’s Tax Competitiveness: Should I Live in Nebraska? The study, done in conjunction with the Creighton University College of Business and Ernie Goss, Ph.D., states that the loss of well educated working age citizens in our state must be reversed. According to the study, over the past 10 years Nebraska’s population growth has lagged its bordering states by 4%. Specifically, the state’s school-age population declined by 3.4% during the same period. 

Current UNL data shows that only 48% its law school and 54% of its engineering graduates remain in the state after commencement. According to 2004 data compiled by the Daily Nebraskan and the Nebraska Alumni Association, the majority of those who left the state after graduating from UNL during 1993 to 2003 aren’t necessarily going too far away; one-third of them took jobs in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas or Missouri.  

This is particularly evident in smaller counties and communities across Nebraska. According to the Daily Nebraskan’s 2004 research, of the 62.3% of UNL graduates who decided to stay in Nebraska after commencement, nearly 80% settled in cities with populations greater than 10,000.  

Keeping people like Smith and Davis in Nebraska, or recruiting them back, will continue to be important goals for the state as it looks to grow economically. The Platte Institute for Economic Research plans to continue studying the “brain drain” topic more and welcomes any input from the public.