It's not a standard leading economic indicator, but the strong turnout at Monday's job fair, as well as the mood — at least among potential employers — seemed more hopeful than dour. The event, hosted by 3rd District Congressman Erik Paulsen, drew an estimated 2,000 hopeful job seekers.

Assessing his 40-year Fed career, the Minneapolis bank’s director of research believes the economic work he and his colleagues do is an important “tool to help better civilization, better the United States [and] better world economies.” Second of two articles.

A fixture in business and economics in the Upper Midwest for decades, Dr. Arthur J. Rolnick credits his colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis for raising concerns about the “Too Big to Fail” philosophy as far back as the late 1970s.

Foundations feel slightly more optimism for charitable giving in 2010, but the economy and state budget problems mean nonprofits must work smarter.

The economic downturn has caused job losses of historic proportions in the trucking industry across the United States and in Minnesota, which has recorded its lowest level of employment in the tough-to-measure sector in a decade.

President Obama’s proposal to ease the credit squeeze on small business through community banks is getting a qualified thumbs-up from a Minnesota community bankers’ organization as well as the state’s two Democratic senators. But it’s drawing fire from congressional Republicans.

If there is a silver lining in the unemployment numbers that continue to show swelling ranks of jobless in Minnesota, it has to do with a slowing growth rate for jobless numbers. That can be an important indicator of whether the economy is experiencing the necessary bottoming-out before it starts growing.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The president plans to direct $45 million to begin construction on the Central Corridor light rail train, money that local and federal officials say all but confirms the project will win federal approval later this year.

Pointing to historically high unemployment among the college-educated 30 and younger, Twin Cities-based recruiter Simon Foster worries that younger people are not getting the needed work experience and that, in the process, companies could be creating a future problem for themselves.

It was a high-stakes bet on a quick recovery from the recession, but as the Legislature prepares to take on the next budget fix, the downturn persists.

Calling the current situation “the middle of a weird economic moment,” the writer told members of the Twin Cities business community that he sees no political solution to the looming fiscal crisis brought on by the growing federal deficit.

The Blue Cross Foundation is awarding $2.5 million to area nonprofits focused on child health, immigrants. Also: a Kresge challenge grant for affordable housing.

If you can sell, develop new products, install software or build online applications, Minnesota employers may have a job for you. But it may not necessarily be just in Minnesota — in fact, it could be overseas.

In what it describes as a first-of-a-kind health insurance product in Minnesota and perhaps the nation, Medica is offering a non-group policy that any two individuals can purchase together, whether they are related or not.