by Nick Dobbins
March 2013
Earlier this year the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced that preliminary jobs numbers for February had put us near our pre-recession peak of 2,780,000, marking an important signpost on the road to economic recovery. How does our economic recovery - which is well underway - compare to our neighbors in the Upper Midwest?
Table 1 compares Minnesota's job level with those of the other four states in the Upper Midwest where we are right in the middle. It also compares our unemployment rates with those of our neighboring states. Minnesota also comes in the middle (Table 2).
| Table 1: Current Employment versus Pre-Recession Peaks, by State | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Pre-Recession High | Date of Pre-Recession High | March 2013 Employment | Percentage of Jobs Recovered |
| North Dakota | 368,900 | Nov-08 | 441,200 | 119.60 |
| South Dakota | 412,100 | Aug-08 | 419,700 | 101.84 |
| Minnesota | 2,780,900 | Feb-08 | 2,770,100 | 99.61 |
| Iowa | 1,528,000 | May-08 | 1,517,200 | 99.29 |
| Wisconsin | 2,885,400 | Jan-08 | 2,804,300 | 97.19 |
| Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics | ||||
| Table 2: Current Unemployment versus Pre-Recession Lows, by State | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Pre-Recession Low | Date of Pre-Recession Low | March 2013 Unemployment |
| North Dakota | 2.9 | Apr-08 | 3.3 |
| South Dakota | 2.6 | Feb-08 | 4.3 |
| Iowa | 3.6 | Mar-07 | 4.9 |
| Minnesota | 3.9 | Jun-06 | 5.4 |
| Wisconsin | 4.3 | Apr-08 | 7.1 |
| Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics | |||
Some of this may be population related since the states with the larger populations have had more trouble pulling out of the recession (Table 3). On the other hand, North Dakota may never have had a falling off with the population growth related to the oil fields.
| Table 3: 2010 Census Population | |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 5,686,986 |
| Minnesota | 5,303,925 |
| Iowa | 3,046,355 |
| South Dakota | 814,180 |
| North Dakota | 672,591 |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |
