According to the recently released American Community Survey, the state saw a net of more than 1,600 residents with bachelor's degrees or higher moving into the state last year, after an increase of more than 200 in 2008.
Two consecutive years of so-called "brain gain" is a sharp departure from past years. In 2007 and 2006, more college graduates were packing up their moving trucks and heading away, with more than 4,600 leaving the state.
"We believe this is the first brain gain in quite a while, and definitely is not what Nebraska typically experiences,'' University of Nebraska at Omaha demographer David Drozd told the Omaha World-Herald.
Analysts gave much of the credit for the increase to the state's continued low unemployment rate. The current jobless rate in the state is 4.6 percent, after topping out at 5.0 percent in April, much lower than the 9.6 percent national unemployment rate.
More News