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U.S. Employment Exploration: Minnesota

Besides being home to a noted man-made tourist attraction, the Mall of America, Minnesota boasts more than 10,000 lakes and serves as the birthplace of the MIssissippi River. It is the twelfth-largest state but in 2004 ranked only twenty-first in population with 5.1 million residents. Like other areas of the country, Minnesota was hit hard by the economic and political events of 2000-2001, but it has seen improvement in the years since then.

Little-Known Facts

Minnesota has over 90 lakes names Long Lake.
Minnesota was once known as "The Bread and Butter State" because of its high-quality wheat, flour, and dairy products.

Employment

Both online and offline, Minnesota provides a wealth of employment-related resources, links to several of which can be found at www.state.mn.us. MnCareers enables you to look up job availability and salary information on more than 200 occupations. Over 40 WorkForce Centers dot the state.

Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) maintains a web site that includes regional labor market data on topics such as current employment statistics, employment projections, and mass layoff statistics. Its Employment Outlook Tool allows you to specify categories such as high-demand/high-pay occupation projections, where you would learn that the expected growth from 2004 to 2014 ranges from 11.2 percent for sales representatives, wolesale, and manufacturing to 52.8 percent for network systems and data communications analysts. [Source: Internet System for Education and Employment Knowledge (ISEEK)]

Unemployment

In May 2007 the statewide, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent in comparison to the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.5 percent. Current unemployment data is available for several areas or topics, including Minnesota Counties and Large Minnesota Cities. In the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) job market, three occupational categories faced a high-unemployment/low-vacancy situation in 2005: material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers; construction trades workers; and assemblers and fabricators. During the same period, nine occupations experienced a low-unemployment/high-vacancy rate situation: engineers; physical scientists; health diagnosing and treating practitioners; nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides; supervisors, food preparation and serving workers; ground maintenance workers; other personal care and service workers; and retail sales workers.

Major Industries & Employers

Major industries statewide include manufacturing; trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; agriculture; and services. In the Twin Cities area, key industries include manufacturing, high technology, and banks and other financial institutions. Sixteen Fortune 500 corporations have their headquarters in that area.

Minnesota ranks fifth in the U.S. for annual farm income, with livestock and livestock products making up approximately 50 percent of that figure. The main manufacturing industry products are computer and electronic items.

The 10 largest employers in the Twin Cities area are the State of Minnesota; the U.S. government; Target Corporation; University of Minnesota; Mayo Clinic; Allina Health; Northwest Airlines; Fairview Health Services; 3M Corporation; and Wells Fargo. [Source: city-data.com]

Wages & Cost of Living

Minnesota ranked ninth in the U.S. for per capita income in 2005, at $34,000-plus, and it achieved a median household income of $54,000-plus for the period 2001-2003. Its state income tax rate is three percent, and its state sales tax is 6.5 percent.

The Twin Cities area had a cost-of-living rate of 109.3 in the third quarter of 2004 versus 100.0 for the U.S. According to JobsNow Coalition, a family of two adults and one child, with one watge earner, would have needed income of approximately $30,700 per year to meet basic expenses in the 7-county Metro region in 2006. [Source: city-data.com]

Climate

The state is noted for having hot, humid summers and severe winters. Record high and low temperatures have ranged between 114 degrees and -60 degrees Fahrenheit. Monthly average temperatures run from 83.4 degrees in summer to -2.9 degrees in winter. Annual precipation for most of the state (both rain and snow) averages between 22 and 32 inches.