New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
More Conn. college graduates are choosing to remain in state for jobs, data shows
More of Connecticut’s homegrown college graduates are staying in the state after collecting their diplomas and helping to bolster the state’s workforce, according to recent data.
About 75 percent of Connecticut natives who graduated from the University of Connecticut in August 2022, December 2022, and May 2023 remained in the state for jobs, up from 69 percent in the prior year’s cohort, according to a university survey.
Those students also stuck close to home for grad school, with 80 percent of in-state students who decided to pursue graduate degrees enrolled in Connecticut institutions, many at UConn.
Out-of-state students are also choosing to stay in Connecticut at increasing numbers, according to UConn, with 18 percent of employed out-of-state graduates working in Connecticut and 38 percent enrolling in Connecticut colleges or universities for graduate school.
The growing trend is a combination of economic and social factors, said Nancy Bilmes, director of the UConn Center for Career Development.
“There are great opportunities in the state — we have a lot of companies that hire a lot of students and they look to hire UConn students,” Bilmes said.
UConn has bolstered its career fairs and outreach to local businesses for internships and recruiting in recent years, she added.
“As we continue to develop the relationships and companies’ brand on campus, they want to come to campus,” Bilmes said. “I think the salaries and the benefits are competitive and compel even some of the students who might think they might want to go out of state to reconsider and to stay in-state.”
Quinnipiac University in Hamden has also seen more of its students stay in the state after graduation, in part due to factors relating to pandemic disruption, said Kafui Kouakou, assistant vice president for career development and experiential learning. About a third of the university’s undergraduates are from Connecticut.
“Now they’re having a sense that they need to stay closer to home than usual,” Kouakou said.
On the positive side, Quinnipiac students from all over are increasingly benefiting from recent programs in science and technology that seek to keep graduates in the state, Kouakou said.
“Especially when it comes to the manufacturing, computer science industry … there’s a lot of money that is being invested in a lot of those areas,” Kouakou said. “Those companies are hiring heavily.”
Quinnipiac grads seeking health careers are also drawn to jobs at the university’s flagship partner in its medical, computer science, and business programs: Hartford HealthCare.
“Students are getting more excited about that, a lot of students are thinking about applying for those jobs that Hartford HealthCare has to offer,” Kouakou said. “Those types of relationships, definitely, I think that’s going to continue to encourage students to stay local.”
Although the numbers are smaller, Yale graduates are also increasingly choosing to stay in Connecticut in recent years.
According to a survey of members of the undergraduate Class of 2022 posted on Yale’s website, 16.74 percent of graduates chose to stay in Connecticut after graduation compared to 15.21 percent of the Class of 2021 and 14.44 percent of the Class of 2017.
Part of what may be drawing graduates to stay in Connecticut are its cities, its relative affordability and ease of transportation — although there’s a lot of room for improvement in all those areas — said Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the state business group CBIA.
“(Young people) want to live, work, and have fun in a vibrant area and a vibrant community, not necessarily be driving around all over the place. And so that’s making investments in the culture and the transportation in our urban areas,” DiPentima said.
The state’s business leaders are eager to attract more graduates to take the estimated 100,000 Connecticut jobs that are going unfilled in the current economy, DiPentima said. That workforce shortage is stifling the state’s longterm growth and recovery from the pandemic, he said.
“We need to fill those jobs so that the businesses can realize the demand for their products and services, which generates more revenue for the state of Connecticut for our towns and cities,” DiPentima said. “We’ve actually got to see significant growth in order to fill the job openings, and that’s where retaining more of our young people who graduate our two- or four-year academic institutions is so critical.”