Minnesota Overview

Minnesota’s nearly 3 million workers -- a majority of whom are concentrated in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area -- benefit from a diverse economy. The Minnesota job market, which experienced weakness during the recession due to its reliance on the construction, real estate and manufacturing sectors, is now on a path to recovery thanks to a boost from the services sector. Employment in most Minnesota communities is on the rise.

Minnesota Job Opportunities

The Minnesota job market is driven by a mix of agriculture, IT, healthcare, forestry, and printing and publishing. Major employers include Target, UnitedHealth Group, 3M and General Mills.

The trade, transportation, and utilities sector followed by education/health services drive Minnesota employment. Two other critical hiring sectors -- government and leisure and hospitality -- have shown recent slowdowns in employment. On a percentage basis, construction and professional/business services have recently reported the strongest job expansion.

Minnesota Employment Trends

Employment in Minnesota was not severely impacted by the recession. The state unemployment rate, which peaked at only 8.3 percent in mid-2009, has declined consistently since then, beginning 2012 below 6 percent. Minnesota payrolls, which constricted for two years, have been expanding since mid-2010. Online hiring has shown strong gains over the past year, but is still below prerecession levels.

Moody’s Analytics forecasts a 1.4 percent increase in the number of jobs in Minnesota between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, slightly more than the 1.3 percent growth expected in the nation’s job supply.