Beyond the Buck: Good-Paying Jobs Alone Won't Help with Talent
There's no shortage of good-paying jobs for college grads in the Capital Region. Why, then, are so many leaving?
A recent string of guest columns and editorials published in The Advocate focused on Louisiana’s struggles with outmigration, particularly among its young, talented college graduates. While the pieces discussed the trend from different angles, all of them brought up one common issue: economic opportunity. Other metros in Louisiana may be genuinely struggling with a lack of available, high-paying jobs attractive to college graduates. In Baton Rouge, however, data suggests this isn’t the issue. Rather, signs point towards quality of life concerns like recreational opportunities and public transportation.
Jobs are not the issue
The Capital Region, like Louisiana, is grappling with young people leaving at high rates. Some degree of outmigration is expected – Baton Rouge is a college town, after all – but the numbers are unsettling. An estimated 57,187 left the 10-parish Baton Rouge Metro in 2022, including 19,685 25-to-44 year olds. What exactly is motivating young people to leave Baton Rouge?
To answer that, it’s helpful to point out what is not driving young folks away. While it’s often lumped in with other issues like housing, K-12 education, and healthcare, a lack of jobs – good-paying, professional jobs – does not seem to be the issue.
Comparing the number of online job postings in the Capital Region to the number of hires shows that, for some of the most in-demand jobs that often require a college degree, there were hundreds fewer people hired than there were job postings in 20231. For a variety of high-paying positions including registered nurses, sales representatives, software developers, and engineers, job postings severely outnumbered hires. The disparity amongst engineers was stark: there were more than 2,200 job postings for electrical, civil, and chemical engineers in 2023 while fewer than 550 were actually hired. In short, many of the types of jobs that young professionals end up moving for can be found in the Capital Region.
Wages, too, don’t seem to be the issue – at least not for all jobs. For some in-demand jobs like registered nurses and software developers, Baton Rouge pays less than other, much larger southern metros like Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. But for plenty of other jobs including sales reps, electrical engineers, and chemical engineers, Baton Rouge pays more than these regions, and this doesn’t factor in the Capital Region’s generally low cost-of-living2.
Of course, there are other job-related aspects young professionals are likely weighing when they consider staying or leaving. Young graduates may want to work for a specific employer, or mid-career professionals may need to move to another location for advancement. But, for many fields, there is not a shortage of good-paying jobs for college graduates in Baton Rouge.
Despite this, our region’s most recent bachelor’s graduates are leaving the state at high rates. Between 2016 and 2018, about 44% of LSU’s and 57% of Southern’s engineering graduates left the state within one year of graduating3. If economic opportunity – in particular, available jobs that pay well – were a more prominent factor in young graduates’ location decisions, then why did so many of Baton Rouge’s engineering grads leave the state almost immediately after walking across the stage?
Where are young professionals moving?
“Young professionals” is a broad, diverse category of people, and the factors they weigh when relocating vary considerably from person to person. But some places stand out in their ability to attract this cohort. The five metros that drew in the most young professional movers from across state lines in 2022 were, in order, New York, Washington DC, Dallas, Atlanta, and Chicago4.
These regions, like the people they attract, are diverse. But they do have some things in common, including:
Robust public transportation system, especially important for our nation’s driving-averse young population
Abundant cultural amenities that offer a wide array of arts, entertainment, and other recreational options for residents
Economic Diversity: all five regions, partially thanks to their size, have diverse economies with the potential to attract workers from a wide range of sectors
Baton Rouge does still have some work to do on the economic diversity front. Growing jobs in emerging sectors like life sciences will only boost the potential pool of talent that considers a move to the Capital Region. But on other issues like public transportation and recreational opportunities – these are the things that demand our time and energy if we are to both stem the tide of young professionals leaving and encourage more to move here. For example, Baton Rouge is one of the worst regions in the country for major concerts per capita. Encouraging or incentivizing more prominent acts to visit the Capital Region will help grow our young professional population.
And let us not forget that, once upon a time, the EBR Metro Council pledged its support for a tram line between LSU and Downtown. That plan, agreed to in 2016, was scuttled in 2018 in favor of a bus rapid transit line that would travel further north along Plank Road. Six years later, Baton Rouge is still without a final plan for the project.
The region desperately needs efficient public transportation between major population and job centers like Southern University, Downtown, and LSU; it can’t afford to continue kicking this can down the road. It’s probably time to revisit and revive both plans. And while intra-metro public transportation is critical, other projects like the proposed Baton Rouge to New Orleans passenger train are too. These are the types of solutions that could pay big dividends when it comes to attracting and retaining talent.
Baton Rouge also needs to do a better job marketing what it already does well. The region has a gold medal-winning parks system, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Library was named the nation’s seventh best in 20225. The Capital Region is also home to several highly rated school systems, including Louisiana’s three best districts6. This is why BRAC, in partnership with Visit Baton Rouge and the Mayor’s office, are launching Better in BTR. There’s progress to be made, but there’s also plenty in the Capital Region already worth celebrating.
Source: Lightcast
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Wage data is for May 2022
US Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
Source: American Community Survey 1-year estimates; BRAC analysis. Data cover movers in 2022.
Among all libraries with annual operating expenditures in excess of $30 million.
Zachary Community School District, West Feliciana Parish, and Ascension Parish received the 3 highest district performance scores among the state’s 71 school systems in 2023. Source: Louisiana Department of Education