CLEVELAND, Ohio – For the first time in years, more than half of recent Northeast Ohio college students chose to remain in the region after they graduated -- a key metric for growing the local labor force.

At 51%, the figure is only slightly above half, but each graduate who stays contributes to the region’s economic growth, said Baiju Shah, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership and a leading member of the Cleveland Talent Alliance, an organization dedicated to expanding the local talent pool.

On Tuesday, the Talent Alliance released the results of a new study showing that retention rates among recent graduates are steadily rising.

In 2020, when the group began tracking the data, 47% of graduates stayed in Northeast Ohio. The percentage rose to 48% in 2022, 50% in 2023,

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