Bloomberg: Pueblo second worst in U.S. suffering brain drain

Meanwhile, Boulder earned the top spot for brain concentration.

Map via Bloomberg News

In Pueblo, the college-educated are leaving in droves, according to the Bloomberg Brain Drain Index. The county ranked no. 2 in places impacted by the brain drain effect, right behind Cumberland, Maryland.

Boulder was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, leading brain-concentration metro areas, according to Bloomberg’s index, which tracks metropolitan areas with greatest loss and growth of “advanced-degree holders, white-collar jobs and earnings generated by employment in computer, engineering and science occupations.”

The data highlights a stark difference between southern and northern Colorado. Colorado State University-Pueblo business professor Michael Wakefield pointed out the county’s drastic migration of college-educated people at an economic forum in 2015.

PULP reported on Wakefield’s warning last year:

“We’re going to have to break the cycle at some point,” Wakefield said at the Pueblo Economic Forum as he concluded his presentation talking about the issues facing Pueblo. He put the brain drain at the forefront. The percentage of the workforce with bachelor degrees is steadily decreasing, 19.1 percent in 2014. Compared to other cities similar in size throughout Colorado, Pueblo is behind. Greely sits at 29.4 percent and Grand Junction is at 30.8 percent, both still under the state average of 36.7 percent of a workforce with a bachelor degree. Wakefield correlates Pueblo’s median wage of $33,784 — also below the state average ($58,823) — with the low number of college degrees in the workforce. Pueblo went from ranking 280 of 379 on the Area Development Online list of workforce with a BA in 2014 to ranking 375 in 2015.

Colorado State Demographer data also shows the net migration in Pueblo decreasing. Between the ages of 23 and 30 Pueblo sees more people leaving the county than moving into the county.

The data shows a much different picture than the state as a whole between the same age group.