How Minnesota’s manufacturing executives feel about the year ahead
The picture is not entirely rosy. Manufactures also face a challenge that has lingered since the country emerged from the Great Recession: a dearth of workers.
Good Jobs
A year in, Cedar Riverside Opportunity Center exceeds expectations for job placement
During its first 10 months of service, the center managed to assist nearly 500 people to find jobs.
Mini MBA program looks to help local minority entrepreneurs grow their businesses
The Metropolitan Economic Development Association’s Mini MBA program is tailored for ethnic minority business owners.
State government makes gains in contracting with minority-owned businesses
While Minnesota state government spending with minority-owned vendors has grown over the last three years, it still represents only 5.4 percent of the $2.5 billion the government spends with vendors each year.
‘We Are All Criminals’ aims to foster empathy and encourage second chances for people with criminal records
Author Emily Baxter points out that while 1 in 4 people in the U.S. has a criminal record, 4 in 4 have a criminal history.
How ‘Ban the Box’ has affected attitudes towards employing ex-offenders in Minnesota
Today, though hard data is hard to come by, those who advocated for its passage say it’s made employers more open to hiring formerly incarcerated candidates.
With more retail sales forecast, Minnesota is expected to see more holiday jobs than previous years
DEED doesn’t have complete data for the holiday season yet. But the state’s retailers added more jobs in September and October than they had in a decade.
Best Buy expands after-school program with teen tech centers in Minneapolis and St. Paul
The company has invested $30 million to grow the Best Buy Teen Tech Centers to provide participants with hands-on, yearlong after-school activities in programming, filmmaking, music production and design.
Minnesota spends millions on workforce training. Here’s how they track whether those programs are actually effective
DEED will spend more than $160 million on workforce training programs in 2018. How does it know what it’s getting for its money?
Amid worker shortage, DEED prioritizes investment in employment training programs
Businesses across Minnesota have increasingly been in dire need of skilled workers.
‘1,000 GED Campaign’ program aims to boost workforce participation
The initiative, which is tailored to get participants to earn certificates in the construction and health care industries, is meant to graduate 1,000 people in the next two years.
Even as people of color increasingly become business owners, access to capital remains a big challenge
According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey, the number of minority-owned companies in the U.S. grew by nearly 5 percent in 2014.
Why Minnesota has so many non-full-time jobs — and why that’s both good and bad for the economy
Of the state’s job vacancies in the second quarter of 2017, 44 percent were part-time (less than 35 hours per week), and 15 percent were temporary or seasonal.
Yes, even amid Minnesota’s tight labor market, there are ways for companies to find qualified workers
Workforce expert offers plenty of techniques that business leaders can use to find, train and retain qualified workers — without support from any state initiatives.
How a state-funded job-matching system hopes to improve employee recruitment — and reduce hiring bias
The MN Job Match platform operates much like an online dating website.
Why this Minnesota employment training program was just honored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Goodwill-Easter Seals was one of seven organizations nationwide to receive the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first-ever “Employer of Excellence” designation.
How St. Paul is trying to find and train its next generation workforce
During the 2016-2017 school year, the Right Track program trained and placed nearly 900 young people in jobs in St. Paul, with most of those participants coming from communities of color.
It’s a tough economy for workers without a bachelor’s degree. But it’s better in Minnesota than in a lot of other states.
A new study puts Minnesota sixth for the number of good jobs held by people without college degrees.
New Vision Foundation aims to inspire Minnesota’s young African immigrants to become tech innovators
To prepare them for the tech workforce, which boasts more jobs than workers, the program equips participants with coding experience and certificates. It then connects them to paid internships.
One way suburban Twin Cities police chiefs are trying to bring diversity to their departments
Most suburban police departments in the metro are overwhelmingly white. A group of police chiefs is hoping they’ve found a way to change that.
