Letter from the Editor

September 2010

A Different Take on Minnesota’s Economy

Among my favorite articles in Trends are those that challenge conventional wisdom, backed up by solid research and data. Kyle Uphoff does that with a story titled More Eggs in Fewer Baskets.

I’ve always assumed that one of the strengths of the Minnesota economy is that we have a diverse industry base, including strong sectors in medical devices, financial services and food production. While that is still arguably true—just look at our impressive mix of Fortune 500 companies—Uphoff’s story indicates that Minnesota might not be as diverse as we thought.

According to his findings, Minnesota has a greater concentration of employment and wages in its top 10 industries than the country as a whole. In other words, more jobs are tied to core industries in Minnesota than nationally. What’s more, that trend is growing faster in Minnesota than elsewhere.

But is that a bad thing? Not necessarily.

Take Rochester, for example. The southeastern Minnesota city has one of the highest employment concentrations in the state, partly because of the dominance of health care and information technology in the community. But Rochester has among the healthiest local economies in Minnesota and tallied the 13th-lowest unemployment rate in the country among all U.S. metropolitan areas in June.

Rochester is fortunate because much of its economy is tied to two sectors—health care and tech —that are growing. On the other hand, regions of the country that rely on a heavy concentration of jobs in declining industries, such as manufacturing, haven’t been as lucky in recent years.

Other stories in this issue look at careers in library science, the post-recession jobs recovery, DEED’s new online JobSTAT tool, the temporary help sector, part-time work and the green jobs study under way in the Labor Market Information Office.

The economy is constantly changing and evolving, and these articles help shed some light on where Minnesota is headed. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Monte Hanson
Editor