There's good news from the U. S. Census Bureau: A college degree can add a million dollars to the lifetime earnings of a typical American worker.

Unfortunately, the census figures contain a few challenging details for Michigan. The state lags behind the rest of the nation both income and the percentage of people with college degrees.

“You can’t really say that the low education has caused the low income,’ said Kenneth Darga, Michigan’s state demographer. “A couple decades ago Michigan had above-average income even with low education levels. It’s what happened with the economy that decreased the income.”

But, he added: “Better education will allow Michigan to take advantage of the new economy.”

As recently as 1999, median household income in Michigan was $3,400 above the national average. By 2009, the state’s median had fallen $3,900 below the national figure, to $47,461, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The past decade’s economic upheaval in Michigan – which Darga calls a one-state-recession – resulted largely from a loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs. Those jobs in such industries as transportation and office furniture often required specialized skills, but not college degrees.

Now, with fewer manufacturing jobs, the skills of Michigan’s workforce do not always match the demands of employment in new fields.

“In many ways, we are victims of our successes in the 1950s and 1960s,” said Michigan State University economist Charles Ballard.

“Michigan was as successful as any place in the world at providing a middle-class and even upper-middle-class standard of living for folks with only a high-school education, or even less. … But the world changed in ways that have rewarded those with more skill, and punished those with less skill, and we did not change with it.”

He cited a “sobering statistic” showing the average man who works full time year-round now makes less than in 1978, when wages are adjusted for inflation.

“Since only about a quarter of the adult population have a college degree, we know who the average man is — he has only a high-school diploma,” Ballard said.

About 1.6 million Michigan adults had bachelor’s degrees or higher in 2009, according to census figures. That represents just under 25 percent of the population age 25 and older.

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The state would need to add about 220,000 additional bachelor’s degrees to reach the national average of 27.8 percent.

The state and nation are seeing a “large and growing gap” between the incomes of high school graduates and people with college degrees, said Mike Boulus, executive director of the President’s Council, State Universities of Michigan.

In 1980, a college graduate typically made 40 percent more than a person with only a high school diploma, Boulus said. That gap is now 75 percent, and by some estimates it will reach 100 percent by 2025.

The disparity among Michigan counties provides many examples.

Oakland and Washtenaw counties ranked near the top in median household income in 2009, at $65,557 and $58, 234 respectively. They also were tops in percent of working-age adults who had at least a bachelor’s degree: 42 percent for Oakland, 50 percent for Washtenaw.

Rural and northern counties were on the lower spectrum. Fewer than 15 percent of working-age adults had degrees in many areas, some with median incomes $10,000 or more lower than the state median.

It’s no surprise a degree opens doors to occupations – whether teaching or investment banking – that are closed to those with only a high school education.

“Higher levels of education allow people access to more specialized jobs that are often associated with high pay. Degrees in many occupations are treated as job training that may be required for a position,” wrote Census Bureau analysts Tiffany Julian and Robert Kominski, authors of a new study on earnings.

A less obvious effect is that people with bachelor’s degrees or higher are significantly more likely to have full-time employment.

About 62 percent of people with bachelor’s degrees held full-time, year-round jobs, according to the report released this month, while 53 percent of those with only a high school diploma worked full-time year-round.

The report, “Education and Synthetic Work-Life Earnings Estimates,” concluded educational attainment has a strong correlation with lifetime earnings, though age, geographic location, gender, race and ethnicity also play a part.

Analyzing 2008 figures, Julian and Kominski estimated median annual earnings for a person with a high school education at $21,569 nationally. The report estimated median annual earnings at $47,283 for persons with a bachelor’s degree and $53,716 for those with master’s degrees.

The researchers compiled statistics from a large national sample of people ages 25 to 64 who were interviewed in 2006-08 as part of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The information was used to estimate income for a 40-year “work-life” for people of various education levels and demographic groups.

For example, median lifetime earnings for black males who work full-time, year-round jobs were estimated at $1.3 million for high school graduates; $2.1 million for bachelor’s degree holders and $2.5 million for those with master’s degrees.

Comparable estimates for white males were: high school graduates, $1.7 million; bachelor’s degrees, $2.8 million; master’s degrees, $3.5 million.

Education led to increased earnings for all genders and ethnic groups, according to the report, but white males and Asian males earned the most in all categories.

At the bachelor’s degree level, median lifetime earnings for blacks, Hispanics and females ranged from 60 percent to 75 percent of the median for white males.

While higher education leads to higher income, many graduates are having difficulty earning that income in Michigan.

About 55,000 bachelor’s degrees are issued in the state each year, but recent estimates show only half that many job openings for that education level, Boulus said.

That has led to a so-called “brain drain,” with many graduates from Michigan universities leaving the state.

“We’ve got good schools,” Boulus said. “We just don’t necessarily have the good jobs.”

Addressing the problem of low income and low educational attainment in Michigan will require state policy changes and a new culture of lifelong learning, according to Ballard.

“If we were serious,” he said, “we would: (a) have a lot more for early childhood, (b) have full-day kindergarten statewide, (c) have a K-12 school year of 200 days, and (d) reverse the enormous cuts to higher-education funding.

“We don’t do those things, primarily because we are obsessed with keeping taxes low,” he said. “But if we were serious about our economic future, we would do all of those things, even though they cost money.”