As we honor workers this Labor Day, thousands of Minnesotans are on the outside looking in. They are unemployed, underemployed or working part time. The economic recovery has passed them by.
Our new report, In the Shadow of the Great Recession: The State of Working Minnesota 2013, focuses on people still struggling to climb out of the recession and find jobs that support their families.
The report examines key economic indicators and finds that many Minnesotans – especially women and people of color – are not sharing in the economic recovery. Our major findings include:
- The gap between the wages of low- and high-income workers has been growing for more than 30 years.
- Racial and gender gaps persist: women and people of color are more likely to lack quality jobs that allow them to pay their bills and support their families.
- The lack of enough good jobs means that too many are unemployed, underemployed, earn wages that are too low to make ends meet, or have left the labor force entirely.
We conclude that the state of working Minnesota will only improve when more Minnesotans have opportunities for good jobs.
-Clark Biegler and Nan Madden