Universities Are Job Centers For the Entire Country
Lost in the obsession of bringing back manufacturing is that Trump's other policies are hurting one of our most successful sectors: higher education.
President Donald Trump has made bringing back manufacturing to the US his top priority during his second term. His administration has been chasing this goal through a series of controversial tariffs that have dominated news coverage. The hope is that the tariffs will bring jobs to Americans in these industrial manufacturing sectors.
Lost in the scramble to bring back these kinds of jobs to the US is that his other policies are harming jobs that we already have in one of our most important sectors: higher education.
The higher education sector employs over 4 million people across some 5,700 institutions. These jobs include not only white-collar positions like professors and provosts but also blue-collar careers like maintenance teams and ground crews, spanning a full range across this spectrum. These numbers do not even account for all the innovation and human capital generated by these institutions.
But the jobs and economic development in higher education are now at risk.
Blanket cuts to research grants and initiatives from Elon Musk’s DOGE, indiscriminate visa revocations for international students, and general federal government meddling in local affairs are threatening the prosperity that these universities bring to the US.
So while one part of the administration makes a gambit to bring back jobs, the other part of the administration is betting jobs we already have. The result is a net loss for Americans, and not just to those at Harvard and Columbia. The negative effects on our universities will be felt nationally.
Higher Ed Means National Employment
While high-profile coastal universities often get the attention, like those in the Ivy League in the Northeast or Stanford in the West, the strength of the US higher education sector comes from its national spread.
From rural to urban areas, large universities to small colleges, and everything in between, institutions can be found throughout the country. Top research universities can be found in basically every state. Distributing institutions was an intentional tactic for US national development dating back to the Morrill Act of 1862, which established institutions like Iowa State University (ISU) and Kansas State University (KSU).
These large public university systems and their hospitals serve as the backbone of employment throughout most states. University-affiliated institutions were the largest employers in ten states, along with 16 others as the second or third largest employers. This is half of all US states with a massive reliance on universities for work.
The numbers also do not include the entire higher education sector, but rather singular systems or institutions. For instance, Washington University in St. Louis comes in third for Missouri, but that does not include the entire University of Missouri system, which would likely bump it to first if combined together.
Further, these jobs aren’t just at massive research universities. Even tiny liberal arts colleges can be the largest employer in small rural towns that they often inhabit. Hurting higher education hurts the entire country.
College Towns Challenge Superstar City Narrative
One complaint that has been especially loud this past decade is the critique that US economic gains have only gone to the coasts and their so-called Superstar Cities. Places like New York, San Francisco, or Miami have seen job growth through globalization, but the center of the country has been left behind as factories have moved offshore.
This is why higher education is crucial. Universities don’t move abroad. They remain local icons and have a civic duty to the communities they serve.
This means that places like Ames, Iowa, or Manhattan, Kansas, have continued as key job centers for states even as manufacturing moved out. Their universities and affiliated hospitals are crucial for local economies, without the threat of leaving because the Sun Belt offers better tax breaks.
One obvious success is Pittsburgh, aka the Steel City. By measures of economic destructiveness from deindustrialization, the city should be a desolate husk. It is not; instead, the city has been thriving.
Pittsburgh’s revitalization has been centered around its urban core and old bones, supported by its array of universities. The city is bolstered by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Duquesne University, with a combined enrollment of around 54,800, not to mention the smaller institutions and community college system.
Juxtapose Pittsburgh across the river to McKeesport, which has struggled to revive after deindustrialization. The city is more sprawled out and its downtown core more hollowed out than Pittsburgh across the river. It only has one university, a branch campus of Penn State called Greater Allegheny. The campus only enrolls a few hundred students and is likely to shutter soon.
Unlike McKeesport, Pittsburgh was actually able to rebuild portions of its industrial base. These new manufacturing ventures were predicated on relationships and connections to universities. The city’s robotics industry was a direct outgrowth of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Without local universities doing innovative work, high-tech industries may have never been able to gain a foothold in the city.
While Pittsburgh certainly has had hard times and continues to work, the city is an American success story that Trump should be looking at for inspiration. The higher education partnerships needed to bring back manufacturing jobs cannot be overlooked.
Campuses Harness the Power of Density
Universities are essentially small cities in themselves. With their dorms packed full of students, centralized classrooms or social facilities, cafeterias, bookstores, and general draw for multiple purposes, they have the power of density that makes cities so dynamic.
As much of the US has been thinned out by sprawl, college campuses are likely the most urbanized areas in either rural or suburban settings. This means that jobs on campus aren’t the only ones that come along with universities. Oftentimes, the districts right near campuses are some of the most dynamic in town.
Because masses of students live in stacked dorms or smaller rooms, the surrounding spaces are often more walkable and compact. Campus corners do not need to rely on massive parking lots like the Big-Box Stores on the edge of suburbia.
Bars and restaurants stay packed during the week with student foot traffic, and hotels fill up with parents and visitors coming in for events on the weekend. Businesses thrive under such conditions, especially small businesses.
Indeed, people love living around universities, despite some town-and-gown flare-ups that I often cover on this site. College towns have even been presented as retirement hotspots for aging Americans (which will be a future post by me).
Death By 1000 Budget Cuts
Even without Trump’s interference in higher education, the sector in the US was facing difficulties. The pool for students is shrinking, and the competition for students is fierce. Cuts to jobs, offerings, or other services are typical stories for most colleges today.
As I have documented, colleges are closing down across the country. When they close down, the loss can be devastating, especially to small towns. As highlighted above, these places are key job centers for towns, sometimes the biggest in their areas. Next, with students gone, the dynamism (and dollars) they bring to the community also leave. Restaurants end up closing, bars get quiet, and there remains a hole in town.
Most universities, especially the large public institutions, are not in danger of closing, but they do face cuts. Trump’s policies will only make it harder for these institutions to operate. The sector has already seen some jobs lost due to grant cancellations and other meddling. As international students sour on the US, more cuts will likely need to be made.
The Trump administration has been so keenly focused on bringing back manufacturing that jobs in higher education have been overlooked. These policies could have worked in tandem, bolstering universities while simultaneously trying to re-industrialize, just as Pittsburgh has done.
The job gains that they are banking on may simply be offset by the losses from universities. These effects will not just be felt in California or New York, but rather throughout the country in both red and blue states alike.