How much do people with two-year or four-year degrees earn? Here are the facts.

We hear frequently from employers and their political allies that many/most kids would be better off pursuing an occupational certificate or two year degree with an occupational major than getting a four year degree. Some version of students with a four year degree are earning low wages with lots of debt, while students going into […]

A strategy for diluting concentrated poverty in Detroit

Decades of research has shown that growing up in concentrated poverty can irreversibly limit a child’s prospects for future success and, sadly, no region has more concentrated poverty than metro Detroit. According to 2016 Brookings Institution report, metro Detroit has the highest rate of concentrated poverty among the top 25 metro areas in the U.S. […]

Job Security: Or How To Prepare For Jobs That Can’t Be Automated

It used to be that parents who wanted job security urged kids to get a degree with immediately practical applications—like Eboo Patel’s mother, who wanted him to major in business instead of sociology, as he recalls in this blog from the Chronicle of Higher Education. But now, more and more jobs that used to seem […]

Are low wages causing the skilled trades shortages?

The Grand Rapids Business Journal recently published an op-ed and comment that lays out the two most likely reasons for more demand by employers for skilled trades workers in manufacturing and construction than there are qualified applicants for those jobs. Which of the two explanations is accurate has profound implications for public policy, particularly for […]

Michigan colleges and economic mobility, part 2

In my last post I analyzed an important data set recently released by economist Raj Chetty and colleagues, that measures every college’s contribution to economic mobility in America. I looked at the percentage of the poorest students in each cohort at Michigan colleges who, by their early thirties, were in the top 40% of earners. […]

What’s the Matter with Kansas – and Michigan?

When called upon to write about Michigan policymakers’ approach to growing the state’s economy, it’s hard to not lapse into using clichés. Some that come to mind are: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, […]

Helping nonviolent offenders avoid prison will lift Michigan communities.

I’ve posted before about why we should try to reduce the number of Michiganders who end up in jail when an appropriate alternative can be found. The costs of imprisonment for the state, the unequal application of our justice system by race, high rates of recidivism, and the long-term effects on the imprisoned—difficulties finding employment, […]

Senator Sasse on the nature of future work

In a previous post I wrote about US Senator Ben Sasse’s (Republican from Nebraska) views on manufacturing jobs not coming back no matter what pressure President Trump puts on companies not to move jobs overseas or to whatever barriers we erect to trade because of automation. We recommended––and do so again––that you watch from about the 32 […]

Are Michigan colleges serving as engines of economic mobility?

I’m generally not a fan of measuring a college’s value by the incomes of their graduates. If a high proportion of a school’s alumni enter a lower-paid field like social work, I don’t think this should count against the college. In addition, simply looking at salary data ignores the significant non-pecuniary benefits of getting a […]

Program helps students pay for college by building good habits

We at Michigan Future believe that if Michigan wants to be competitive in the 21st Century knowledge-based economy, our state’s leaders need to support policies that boost the number of Michiganders who hold four-year degrees. As my colleague Patrick Cooney pointed out in a recent blog, declining state support for public universities has led to […]