"Brain Drain" in the Inland Empire?

The region needs to build - and sustain - its workforce

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Last week I looked at the relationship between education and unemployment. I want to continue this discussion by looking at how education links to income and the commuting patterns of the region’s workforce.

According to the American Community Survey (2019), about 23% of the Inland Empire’s population aged 25 or older has a bachelor’s degree or higher – such as a master’s or professional degree. In Los Angeles, that statistic is 35.5% and in San Diego, it’s 39.9%. These are stark differences that are directly related to median income. Here is a chart showing the relationship between educational attainment and median income across 380 metro areas in the United States. There is unquestionably a positive relationship between the two.

The implication of this chart is that to grow, the Inland Empire should build a more educated workforce. A UC Riverside/Beacon Economics report from a few years ago found that one way to do that might be to build more dense and downtown-centric economic development models. Higher density can attract bigger employers and bring an educated workforce. Of course, more direct support for educational attainment – tuition aid and funding – would also help.

The Inland Empire must also work to retain the educated workforce it already has. Because of a lack of opportunities, many educated workers in the region commute to the major coastal metro areas, which is partly responsible for high commute times.

My calculations based on American Community Survey microdata from 2019 suggest that close to one quarter of our educated workforce commutes to either Los Angeles, Orange, or San Diego County. An estimated 334,000 educated workers are based in and work in the Inland Empire, but another 99,300 residents work elsewhere in one of those three counties.

While not exactly the classic example of a “brain drain” (in fact, on net, we continue to attract educated workers), it is arguable that the region is missing out in some big ways by failing to employ these workers locally – not to mention the environmental impacts of all that commuting.