Economy and jobs
By Eric Ostermeier on May 22, 2009
For the second consecutive month, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen in the State of North Dakota - providing further evidence of at least a lull in, if not a cessation to, the bad economic news that has befallen the Upper Midwest during the past year. April's jobless rate...
By Eric Ostermeier on May 21, 2009
On the heels of the positive developments in South Dakota, which also saw its unemployment rate drop in April, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced on Thursday morning that the Gopher State’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 8.1 percent. The slight employment...
By Eric Ostermeier on May 21, 2009
In what may be the Upper Midwest’s first sign of the beginning of the end of its economic recession, the South Dakota Department of Labor announced on Wednesday that the Mount Rushmore State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate had fallen to 4.8 percent for the month of April. While that drop...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 24, 2009
Although the unemployment numbers released during the past week by Iowa Workforce Development find the Hawkeye State with its highest seasonally adjusted jobless rate since December 1987, Iowans are not losing their jobs at the rate endured by other Upper Midwestern states. At 5.2 percent, Iowa's current unemployment rate is...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 17, 2009
For those wondering why Wisconsin’s evaluation of the job performance of President Barack Obama, its Governor, Jim Doyle, and its U.S. Senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, has been quite critical in recent months, one may only need to stop and consider the record-setting trend in unemployment the Badger State...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 16, 2009
Although Minnesota’s new March unemployment numbers, released this morning by the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development, are the highest since May 1983, the 8.2 percent seasonally adjusted rate marks the slowest rate of decline in jobs in the Gopher State in half a year. Jobless claims rose from...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 15, 2009
South Dakota’s Department of Labor announced the state’s new March 2009 unemployment numbers Wednesday morning – numbers which find the Mouth Rushmore State enduring its highest jobless rate in more than 23 years. The seasonally adjusted March 2009 unemployment rate of 4.9 percent is the highest in South Dakota since...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 9, 2009
As unemployment rises month-by-month in Minneapolis, along with the rest of the Gopher State, serious violent and property crimes continue to fall in Minnesota's most populated city at an impressive rate. Minneapolis' non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 7.1 percent in February - its highest rate in decades. However, even though...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 8, 2009
Although the majority of Upper Midwestern states are currently experiencing some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, the rate of increase, particularly during the last four months, has hit this region of the country particularly hard. Overall, three of the five states with the lowest unemployment rates in...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 29, 2009
Governor Tim Pawlenty and State Economist Tom Stinson have frequently declared that Minnesota is in its worst recession since World War II. If that is the case, how long will it take to return to the halcyon days of a thriving Minnesota economy, with unemployment returning to its pre-recession levels...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 20, 2009
Preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment data for the month of February 2009 was released on Wednesday and Thursday for three Upper Midwestern states, with each showing a reduction in the rate of growth of jobless claims. While unemployment rates continued to rise in all three states since January, each state was...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 17, 2009
What with Minnesota's unemployment rate and per capita 2010 budget deficit the largest in the entire Upper Midwestern region, one wonders if Gopher State residents will soon look to the purportedly thriving Dakotas to find economic shelter during these trying times. North Dakota's booming oil business received a lot of...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 10, 2009
Nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host Mike Gallagher lamented this morning that his failure to sell his own house, that he recently placed on the market, was due to the psychological effects burdening the wealthy resulting from the class warfare propagated by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats. Gallagher...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 8, 2009
Although South Dakota has not yet been hit by the scale of job losses experienced across the nation or the Upper Midwest, the new January numbers released on Friday by the state’s Department of Labor indicate South Dakota, like its neighbor to the east, is experiencing its worst unemployment trend...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 26, 2009
Every month Smart Politics writes a new analysis on the latest dire unemployment numbers released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), and each month our analysis unearths new trends behind the numbers that document why the current economic trend is the worst in generations. January’s seasonally...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 5, 2009
As December’s unemployment numbers demonstrate, Minnesota continues to endure a skyrocketing rate of job losses, especially when compared to its neighbors to the south and west. To the west, North Dakota and South Dakota have the second and third lowest unemployment rates in the nation, at 3.5 percent and 3.9...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 2, 2009
From the rising unemployment numbers to the state budget crisis, the news in Minnesota seems to be getting worse and worse. Adding insult to injury came the recent news last week that Minneapolis ranked as the fourth least desirable metropolitan area to where Americans would like to move out of...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 30, 2009
The near universal legislative support of the unemployment bill signed into law on Thursday by Governor Tim Pawlenty is a first step by the state to address an economic and employment crisis that is escalating at record levels in Minnesota. The bill will extend the unemployment benefits of more than...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 22, 2009
Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate now stands at 6.9 percent, according to new December 2008 numbers released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. The data continues what, by many measures, are the worst statewide jobless numbers since the collection of monthly data by the Department began in...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 16, 2009
Governor Tim Pawlenty's State of the State Address on Thursday afternoon saw a significant change in the policy issues he raised from his previous address on February 13, 2008. These changes largely reflected the harsh economic reality that has beset both the state and the nation during the past year....
