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Minneapolis, Minnesota Jobs
Minnesota Struggles with Economic Outlook
What a difference a decade makes. Once a shining national star of prosperity and proper management, the state of Minnesota now struggles in the face of adversity after a major transportation system collapses and traffic is re-routed in an effort to keep its population working and its job market sustained.
`Let us compare current employment statistics for the state of Minnesota and see how the employment picture compares to that of a decade ago. It seems this state now depends on nearly three million workers in an effort to compete in the international marketplace. Although the number of employable humans in the population was not always of this magnitude, Minnesota has always been known as being a hard working population.
In the late 1990s, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area lead all other major metropolitan areas in the largest proportion of working age and employable humans in all other major metropolitan areas for those that were actual wage earners in Minneapolis jobs. This makes the statistical area of Minneapolis-St. Paul the hardest working metropolitan area in the United States of America. However, this population was also one of the hardest playing groups of people, in addition to a working segment of society. Yet, it appears much can change in a decade. The former nation’s leading state now is beginning to lose its edge in the face of increasing global competition. For instance, manufacturing is steadily losing jobs, down a total of 4,200 jobs over the last three consecutive months.
August 2007, State of Minnesota
Department of Employment and Economic Development
Both the labor force participation rate, as well as the employment to population ratio, fell once again. The state's labor force participation rate fell another three-tenths of a percentage point to 72.4 percent, its lowest rate since early 1989, while the employment to population ratio fell from 69.4 to 69.1 percent in Minnesota.
Jobs gaining sectors were led by Education & Health Services, Trade, Transportation & Utilities, and Leisure & Hospitality, especially food and beverage establishments. Retail trade showed strength, boosting Trade, Transportation & Utilities with the addition of 1,500 jobs in August 2007. Bright spots continue to be in navigational, measuring, electro medical & control devices and miscellaneous manufacturing, which include medical equipment & supplies.
Yet,` the state of Minnesota suffered some amazingly disruptive events such as the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge provided direct access to downtown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota, area businesses and north suburban destinations for more than 140,000 vehicles each day. This likely contributed to the loss of 600 jobs in Transportation and warehousing. An analysis conducted by MnDOT reveals the average daily net economic impact is $113,000 reduction in the state’s economic output. This daily impact results in about 417 million in 2007 and 443 million in 2008. The data was collected through a variety of sources and analyzed with the assistance of REMI Consulting using their Transited and Policy Insight econometric models. The overall loss of 4247,000 due to auto travel time is a significant loss to individuals in terms of longer commutes and costs associated with re-routing the 140,000 vehicles on a daily basis.
While declines were greatest in Government, Manufacturing, and Construction. Construction continued to slide, mirroring the declining housing market nation-wide, with the greatest losses in residential construction. Losses have been concentrated in durable goods manufacturing, especially wood products and transportation equipment. The collapse of the I35w Bridge has the potential to cost the state jobs throughout the economy depending on how effectively road users react and respond to the current conditions.
Clearly, then, as we can attest from the situation in the state of Minnesota, a decade can have a huge impact on economic conditions due to situations which arise without warning. Therefore, other states should heed the lessons learned from this particular state and take absolute precautions to protect themselves against those unforeseen circumstances when they arise. Otherwise, as is the situation with Minnesota, everyone will feel the impact in one form or another.
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