Immigration, education, and the future of the California workforce

In the decades after the second world war, California's highly educated wor kforce 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 th ere is evidence that California's educational advantage may be shifting. Th e overall levels of education in California's workforce are decreasing rela tively, with real implications for the future human capital of California. The data show lower education levels in California and a reversal of previo us patterns when California's workforce was more educated than the nation a s a whole. The implications for the future of California as a cutting edge economy are less clear, but it is possible that increasingly, California wi ll 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 C alifornia and with the continuing flows from Mexico and Central America.