Minneapolis Economic Growth

The City's Director of Economic Development, Cathy Polasky, has shared some interesting information with Council Members.

"The City of Minneapolis has fared better than most areas of the country during the recession. We’ve been cited by Forbes and others as being in a good position to emerge from the recession. In May, 500 more people were employed in Minneapolis than in April, and 3,700 more were employed than a year prior. This compares to a one-year loss of 866,000 jobs nationally. The Minneapolis unemployment number for May was 6.0%, down from 7.6% a year prior.

"We think that the City, through its policies and programs, played an important role in helping residents obtain jobs and in attracting and retaining jobs through our business support tool box."

This is good news, and shows that our economic development and job training strategies are paying off. The one caution I want to raise is that while these numbers look great, there are continuing disparities between whites and people of color. In my opinion, we should definitely talk about our successes, but we can't rest until these economic opportunities are shared by everyone in our city.