Educated cities have lower unemployment

From 2005 to 2009, education requirements for an average U.S. worker have continuously increased, outpacing the growth of educated labor, a new Brookings Institution report found. It also found that when the economy does recover, longer-term structural unemployment will remain in some areas because of mismatches between the supply of and demand for educated workers.

Cities with highly educated people have maintained unemployment rates lower than the national average of 9.1 percent, the Brookings Institution announced. Indianapolis; Salt Lake City; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Knoxville, Tennessee, are educated cities that have had lower unemployment rates. Other cities like Boston and Madison, Wisconsin, are major hubs for education, so they educate people and then create jobs that call for people with advanced degrees.

“The reason [for low unemployment in those cities], in large part, is that the average worker in those areas has enough education to meet the needs of the average job," Jonathan Rothwell, one of the study's lead authors, told the 24/7 Wall St. blog.

Other cities that are good for educated workers include Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Provo, Utah.

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