While some have looked to Minnesota--and its lowest-in-the-nation
unemployment numbers==as a beacon of hope in the recovery economy,
those numbers may be misleading, writes
Motoko Rich in a May 13 New York Times article.
While Minnesota's rate is 6.6 percent, "well below the 9 percent across
the country," that number reflects "people giving up on the job hunt or
retiring early, as well as an aging workforce with fewer young people
competing for jobs," writes Rich.
Rich quotes local experts and officials and offers a point-by-point
deconstruction of the state's employment trend currently and through the
recent recession economy, including the fact that employers have added
back only 27,000 of the state's 154,000 lost jobs.