DEED Call for Business 9/17/2020

APPLE VALLEY CHAMBER NOTE: Today’s DEED conference call is “ALL ABOUT THE STATS.” TAKE A QUICK LOOK including MONEY RUNNING OUT FOR EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE EXTRA $300. The notes are shorter than usual.

• Paid out 6 weeks of lost wages per FEMA, $300 extra/mth. If you qualified, that represents $1800. Should arrive in bank accounts by end of this week.
• MN has asked for 7th week of benefits, but FEMA doesn’t believe money will be available.
• Today: monthly jobs report: we are seeing slow recovery, ahead of the country on most metrics.
• Unemployment rate down to 7.4%, down from 7/7% last year. Nation is at 8.4%.
• MN’s peak was 9.4% in May, US high was 14.4% in April.
• 44K new jobs.
• Up 1.5% in job growth compared to job #s in July. US is 1% up overall.
• Much comeback from govt: census workers, service industry jobs
• 7800 hospitality, 7100 food
• Financial activities sector lost .1% jobs.
• Down 7.3% jobs overall. 7.0% overall in US.
• Bright spots here: retail trade. Completely rebounded from job loss in retail trade, the only sector. Online retail is really growing.
• Prof services doing better than the nation overall.
• Temp agencies doing better overall.
• Food mfg bounced back, up year over year, at 1.1%. Up 54% food production exports year over year in Q2.
• Reskilling: Service sector remains challenged. People need to be thinking about transitions, in case some jobs never come back. We are working to help people find jobs/careers that ARE in demand. We now have over 54K jobs posted to our state jobs site.
• People of color, 6-mth rolling average is 16.3%, 9% for Hispanic, 6.7% for white Minnesotans.
• Black Minnesotans much higher % in hospitality industry.
• MN’s work ethic: labor force participation rate. At 70% before pandemic, now at 69.8%. 61.7% national average. We are one of top 3 states. One of our true strengths.