It’s pretty clear to me that “university towns” have a major advantage when it comes to leadership in the knowledge-based economy. After all, they have the “big three” requisites when it comes to nurturing and growing technology-driven companies: people, facilities and money.
You can already see it in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly unemployment figures. Check it out. Whether it’s for the current month, or averaged during the past 12 months, the metro areas with the lowest unemployment figures are almost all home to a major research university.
The reasons for that are obvious.
Each has a high percentage of working age adults who possess at least a bachelor’s degree. While the U.S. average is about one in four, in Boulder, Colo., home of the University of Colorado, it is slightly more than 52 percent. Nearly one in four adults in Ithaca, N.Y., home to Cornell University, has at least a master’s degree.
| Whether it’s for the current month, or averaged during the past 12 months, the metro areas with the lowest unemployment figures are almost all home to a major research university. |
In College Station, Texas, home to Texas A&M University, which for decades was the punch line for countless Aggie jokes (full disclosure: I am an Aggie), nearly 6 percent of adults possess a Ph.D. Fewer than one in three metros in the U.S. even have as much as 1 percent of their work force with doctorates.
Not only do universities attract (as well as produce) a lot of bright people, they also have great facilities designed for research.
Test equipment and facilities are extremely expensive — this is especially true in life sciences — and it is cost-prohibitive for most young companies. Partnering with a university is often a good solution.
These “university towns” also attract a tremendous amount of research and development money every year to fund projects in science and engineering, among other disciplines. While much of this research doesn’t turn out to have any commercial application, at least in the short term, some of it does, thereby spawning the type of companies that will drive our economy well into the future.
These communities, barring calamitous mismanagement (i.e., onerous laws or restrictions on growth) at the local political level, will all prosper during the next several decades.
But how about those communities that are not fortunate enough to have a college or university in the middle of town? Are they doomed to a life of misery and abject poverty? Of course not, although some probably are.
What these communities need to do is focus on ensuring that their children receive a good education. In a country where 28 percent of eighth-graders can barely read at all — according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics — and only 30 percent can read at the 8th grade level, that’s no small challenge.
I’ve been asked many times if I knew what percentage of all jobs in the United States require a college degree. I have no idea, and I can’t imagine what criteria one would use to try to arrive at such a number.
That’s because the competition for labor is driven by supply and demand. Most employers will look to hire the smartest workers they can find at a price they can afford, and if they have more college graduates applying than they have available jobs, then a college degree will most likely be the minimum requirement. If the cut line falls at “some college,” then that will become the minimum education requirement.
At the macro level, it’s a numbers game, and a community doesn’t want to be at the bottom part of the list when it comes to education levels.
Sound harsh? You bet it is. But it’s also reality.
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