Where will we find our new talent?
The 120th Kentucky State Fair ended last Sunday (August 25). Volunteers from NKY Works helped staff a booth promoting Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties in support of our convention and visitor’s bureau, meetNKY. Volunteers agreed it was a great opportunity to “talk up” Northern Kentucky and our many amenities. Several also commented that many Kentuckians know very little about our region, and what is known is often gleaned while driving through on the interstate.
Our lack of identity is one of our hurdles for talent attraction. How should we promote our assets to entice people to relocate here to fill our many job openings? It’s a complex question, one that is currently being deeply explored by meetNKY and its partners along with the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Stay tuned for guidance and direction from those organizations at a later date.
In the meantime, local and national data can help us better understand why people relocate. Nationally, the US Census Bureau ranks the following reasons for moving:
Housing (41.6%)
Family (26.5%)
Employment (16.1%)
Other (15.9%)
Most relocation can be characterized as “moving,” which is changing residency within the same geographic market. People who “migrant” move from one geographic market to another one. Here are examples: If you change your residency from Kenton to Boone County, you are moving. If you change your residency from Covington to Louisville, you are migrating. It turns out that many Americas “move” but only 4.6% “migrate” every year.
That is even more true in Greater Cincinnati, where more than 70% of our population was born here. According to Janet Harrah of NKU’s Center for Economic Analysis and Development, people born in Greater Cincinnati generally stay here. Even when our residents migrant to another market, they typically go to a geographic market within two hours of here. “It’s really a zero net sum game,” Harrah said. “We get about as many migrants as we lose to other markets in the Midwest.”
But she highlighted one population segment that holds promise for talent attraction: young people aged 18 to 26. Locally, 25% of our young people leave Greater Cincinnati. Check out Harrah’s graphic below that shows where they go.
Map showing where young adults relocate
Studies show young people are enticed by high wages. They will migrate to an area, or they will remain in an area if the jobs and wages are good. This highlights the importance of connecting local students to good-paying jobs while they are still in school, so they don’t seek jobs elsewhere upon graduation. It also underscores the need for our wages to be competitive with other regions.
Another potential market for talent attraction is international migrants. In fact, international migrants are the top source for new residents in our area, shown in Harrah’s top ten list for in-bound migration to Greater Cincinnati. She noted international migrants are more likely to be aged 25-64 than the general population. They are here and ready to work. A large percentage of them came to Greater Cincinnati as students, and helping them find permanent employment here is a clear strategy for keeping them in our region.
1. International: 3,295
2. Cleveland, OH: 1,493
3. Dayton, OH: 1,333
4. New York, NY: 676
5. Memphis, TN: 538
6. Youngstown, OH: 433
7. Louisville, KY: 408
8. Washington Court House, OH: 392
9. Akron, OH: 349
10. Fort Wayne, IN: 310
There are other strategies for making Northern Kentucky more attractive to our immigrant population. It’s the topic of our upcoming Workforce Workshop on September 12 at 2:30 PM at the KY Career Center in Covington. You are invited to join us. The session is free and will feature local employers and support organizations. Register here.