8.6% is still quite a gloomy number compared to 3.2% from the pre-corona virus period. The decline in unemployment is however a big sign of how destructive the shutdowns were…
Minnesota's economy weathered the first three months of 2020 better than the US as a whole, but worse than its neighbors to the south and west.
A month ago, I wrote about how Minnesota was experiencing the worst of both worlds when it comes to COVID-19, with the state having both the highest death rate per…
From March to April, the unemployment rate in our state rose from 2.9% to 8.1% as the number of unemployed Minnesotans increased by 160,627.
I detected a certain candor in the political mutiny in which Susan Kent (D-Woodbury) dethroned Tom Bakk (D-Cook) last month to become the Democrat leader of the Minnesota Senate. In…
Who says students aren’t learning much during the the shutdown of schools and cancellation of classes for the rest of the school year due to the coronavirus recess? Some Minnesota…
"We can say with 95 percent confidence that we are going to need a minimum of 3,000 beds starting in the middle of May." -Gov. Walz, April 8th. Yesterday, there…
There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the Governor's knob twiddling and, as a result, small business in Minnesota have little idea where they stand. The shutdown has…
The April jobs report is terrible and when Minnesota's numbers come out they are unlikely to be any better. Indications are that poorer counties and lower paid occupations will have…
The economic cost of the Coronavirus shutdown is being disproportionately borne by Minnesota's small businesses.
Governor Tim Walz has extended the stay at home order to May 4. Minnesotans are being urged to voluntarily comply with the Executive Order, which directs us to limit activities…
More than 300,000 Minnesotans have applied for the state unemployment insurance program since March 16th, but there are still some people out there looking to hire.
The economic cost of Minnesota's war against the coronavirus may be one we need to pay, but it is already very high indeed.
The Senate Democrats reveal that ‘One Minnesota’ is a PR sham, but we wish it weren’t so.
A program pioneered by the countertop manufacturer Cambria to offer English language classes to help immigrant workers better succeed at work and in society has become a model for both…
The state’s ineptitude grows.
How will a minimum wage hike give workers more money to spend if employers cut back the amount of labor they buy from them?
1.3 million Minnesotans of working age are not in the labor force. 94% of them are cool with that, mostly because they are retired. Finding ways to get them into…
As part of American Experiment's new "Morning in Minnesota" breakfast series, I talked about the Center's "Great Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree" project in Alexandria Wednesday morning. Over 40 people…
Over the last year, Minnesota's working age population has grown faster than that of the United States generally, but employment has increase more slowly. As a result, while the number…
The recent surge in attacks in downtown Minneapolis does not seem to be driven by economic deprivation but by simple sadism.
Minnesota employers in manufacturing and the trades continue to grapple with daunting workforce challenges. For example, while the construction industry in our state grew 20 percent from 2014 to 2018,…
Over the last year Minnesota has added more people but fewer jobs that the nation as a whole. The number of Minnesotans not working - either unemployed or out of…
Like the state generally, Minnesota's cities are not generating jobs fast enough for their growing populations