Immigration, education, and the future of the california workforce

Abstract

In the decades after the second world war, California's highly educated workforce was a central part of the booming California economy, especially in the 1950s and 1960s when large numbers of migrants arrived from the Middle West and the East Coast. Now in the last decade of the twentieth century there is evidence that California's educational advantage may be shifting. The overall levels of education in California's workforce are decreasing relatively, with real implications for the future human capital of California. The data show lower education levels in California and a reversal of previous patterns when California's workforce was more educated than the nation as a whole. The implications for the future of California as a cutting edge economy are less clear, but it is possible that increasingly, California will be competing with other states for the fast-growing and well-paying jobs in the high technology sector. The future of the California workforce will be closely bound up with the education of the immigrant stock already in California and with the continuing flows from Mexico and Central America.