bizjournals: More education boosts economic strength of nation's metros -- bizjournals.com

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proves the point. It shows that a worker holdin g a doctorate will earn 70percent more, on than a colleague with a bachelor'as degree and 215 percent more than someond who never progressed beyond high And the gap widens every year, increasing the importance of higher education and Workers who don't keep pace are destinedf to pay the price. "The decline of labor unions and a decline in the minimum wage in constantg dollars have contributed to a relative drop in the wages of lesseducated workers," warne a separate But cities with educated workforcesa have a brighter economic future.
A new bizjournalsz study that ranks the brainpower levelsof America's 100 largest metropolitan areads finds that Madison, Wis., Washingtojn and San Jose are runners-up in bizjournals' Washington boasts the nation's largest sharew of adults with advanced degrees, 22.2 while San Jose follows close behinxd in that category, a shade under 20 percent. Here are that are the brainpowert leaders. The study's objective was to identify those metrozs that have the highest levels of collective as indicated bytheir residents' educational attainment.
Madison is blessed with thred employment sectors that place a premiumon It's the home base for the 42,000-student Universitt of Wisconsin, the state government of Wisconsin (population: 5.6 and an expanding number of biotechnology firms. The result is a broadlgy educated workforce. Seventy-five percent of Madison's adults have attendedf college, which is three percentage points ahead of any other Andits high-school dropour rate of 4.3 percent is easily the lowes in the study. The University of Wisconsin'w chancellor, John Wiley, has been emphasizinyg the link between education and economic successx since assuming officein 2001.
"Wisconsi n has a mature, slow-growth economy," . "As a state, we are increasinglty looking at high-growth strategies built on brainpower, researchn and technology." The payoff is evidenrt in recenteconomic Madison's per capita income of $38,99 3 is 13 percent higher than the national while its 2007 year-enf unemployment rate of 3.3 percent was far better than the nation's 5.0 Bizjournals used U.S. Census Bureau data to analyze the educationalk attainment of adults in100 metros, ranginv in size from New York City to Lancaster, Pa.
Its formulaz assigned points to the six rungs of aneducationj ladder, then generated scores on a 100-point The higher the score, the higher a market's collective brainpower, accordinfg to the study's . Bizjournals followedf Census Bureau guidelines in developing its education The following are thesix rungs, with averags annual earnings for adults at each level (as of 2005) in -- Advanced degree, including professionap degree ($119,009), doctoral degree ($92,863) or master'as degree ($67,898) -- Bachelor's degree -- Associate degree ($37,990) -- Attended some but no degree ($31,421) -- High school graduatw ($29,448) -- High school dropout Washington, as already has the highest percentage of adultzs on the top with 22.
2 percent holding advanced Madison and San Francisco-Oakland are tied on the next They have the biggest share of adults who left schoolo after earning bachelor's degrees, 28.1 percent At the opposite end of the rankings are several Texass and California markets where college graduatew are outnumbered by high school dropouts. Last places belongs to McAllen-Edinburg, Texas, where 36 perceng of adults departed high school withoutreceivinfg diplomas.