During her bachelor's degree in international management in Magdeburg, Sophie Schilling realized that she would like to work in a management consultancy.

After graduating, she quickly found a suitable position in Berlin in mid-2020.

"But I only moved there for work," says Schilling.

Actually, the 26-year-old would have liked to stay in Saxony-Anhalt, but it became clear to her during her studies that it could be difficult to pursue a career in the region.

So Sophie Schilling's career start is in line with the trend.

According to a recent study by the online portal Jobvalley and the University of Maastricht from January of this year, many students in eastern Germany do not want to stay in the federal state in which they study to start their career.

This is particularly noticeable in Saxony-Anhalt.

Almost two thirds of the students there want to start their career in another federal state, but the same applies to Thuringia and Brandenburg.

On the other hand, federal states such as Berlin, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are attracting academics to start their careers.

“Extended workbenches instead of control rooms

At least at first glance, the emigration of young professionals is also a financial setback.

Since every university place costs the federal states money, they have an interest in retaining young professionals.

While metropolises such as Hamburg or Berlin make a profit of around one billion euros a year through migration movements between federal states, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony lose almost half a billion.

The balance also looks bad for the new federal states: Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, for example, lose more than 300 million annually.

However, other studies do not come to the conclusion that student spending is a problem for the new federal states.

A study on the regional economic effects of the Martin Luther University in Halle found that for every euro that is invested in the university from public funds, students and employees generate around two euros in sales in the city and the surrounding area.

The bottom line is that the region also earns money from the students - even if they don't stay long-term.

Most young people worry less about the economic impact of their career choices on the region when deciding where to start their careers.

Such decisions are rarely based on the criteria of East or West Germany, says Jens Marchewski from the Legatum career network.

The career network is committed to getting more East Germans into management positions.

Rather, the choice of location is mostly about both personal and professional perspectives, according to Marchewski.