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Does MN’s economy have mediocre performance?

2016 November 17
by WCR President Linda Stanton

When it comes to a strong educated workforce, work ethic, labor force participation and families, Minnesota is definitely above average. Minnesotans live conservatively by living responsibly. This was the beginning of Peter Nelson’s message to the group on Sat Nov. 12. All these factors translate into a strong economy but the outlook for MN’s economy is not as promising as we think. Minnesota is not keeping up with other states like Washington, Colorado and Texas. While the state has higher personal incomes and household incomes, this is a reflection of two wage earner families that are prevalent in the state. This doesn’t automatically translate into a strong economy; for instance, data-point’s show that we will only have AVERAGE growth over the next 5-10 years. An example is that small and new business formation is declining in Minnesota to a level lower than the rest of the country. In addition, productivity, which creates higher wages, has fallen behind. Minnesota is below the top 15 cities in productivity. Compared to neighboring states Minnesota is not doing as well as Iowa for example. Comparing border counties shows that there are fewer jobs in MN vs the other side of our borders. 

This is just a taste of the detailed information given to us by Peter Nelson of the Center of the American Experiment from the report put together by Joseph V. Kennedy, Ph. D. See the link below to find out more.

http://www.americanexperiment.org/reports-books/minnesotas-economy-mediocre-performance-threatens-states-future/

peter-nelson

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