BRAIN DRAIN: College graduates leaving Mississippi to work elsewhere

OXFORD, Miss. — Mississippi State Organic Science main Macy Loper suits the invoice ― she plans to go away the Magnolia State when she graduates.

She desires to go to nursing college and when she is finished, she is getting out of the state.

“Primarily as a result of folks don’t receives a commission quite a bit,” Loper stated. “I really like the state. I want I might keep right here, however I really feel like there are much more alternatives out of Mississippi.”

“We’ve got bought to do a greater job of linking up our universities with employers, and I discuss to Mississippi employers on a regular basis, they usually say the number-one factor that we want is sweet expert staff,” stated Mississippi State’s Auditor Shad White. “We’ve got a necessity, and we have now a provide. We simply have to attach the 2.”

A brand new research by his workplace discovered that three years after Mississippi college students graduate, 50% of them depart the Magnolia State to work elsewhere.

Even amongst those that are from Mississippi, 38% of them are gone simply as rapidly.

White commissioned the “mind drain” research to search out out if the state was getting its cash’s value for what it was placing into increased training.

Between 2015 and 2018, the state spent greater than $1.5 billion on college students at its public universities.

“We’re investing a ton of cash and solely preserving half of our work product,” White stated.

“My title is Shantae Bowen, and I’m a administration data methods main with a minor in advertising and marketing, and my future plans are to go to work in Texas or Florida for a serious firm,” stated Ole Miss scholar Shantae Bowen.

Bowen is like a lot of her classmates.

The auditor’s research exhibits that amongst in-state graduates from the College of Mississippi, between 2015 and 2017, fewer than 52% had a job within the state three years after commencement.

So how can this pattern be stopped?

State Senator David Parker of Olive Department is working with the state’s workforce growth program. He advised us that data from the research is step one.

“I believe that for a few years we did issues and not using a plan,” Parker stated. “If you happen to don’t have a plan it’s onerous to organize a workforce. If you happen to don’t know what sort of careers and jobs you want within the state, it’s onerous to organize a workforce for jobs you don’t know are current or wanted within the state.”

Auditor White stated the discuss is about methods to do a greater job of connecting college students and soon-to-be graduates with careers which can be in-state, and preserving them there.

“What if we had a profession officer at each Mississippi college whose sole job is to get the graduates jobs in Mississippi, as a result of we’re already shoveling out a ton of cash?” White stated.

For some, like latest Ole Miss pharmacy college graduate Dr. Holly Taylor, the choice to remain in Mississippi is straightforward.

“As a result of household is right here and my child is right here, and that is house and I’ve bought to remain at house,” she stated.

However a latest journey by the auditor to talk to an accounting class at Ole Miss gave him some ugly first-hand numbers on what the state is coping with when he requested the category some questions.

Whit requested, “what number of of y’all are leaving the state of Mississippi?” Concerning the response, he stated, “it seemed like about 100% of the arms went up. So I stated, ‘What number of are staying?,’ and it was sufficiently small to rely; about 7.”

These ugly numbers aren’t including up nicely for Mississippi.

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