Tag: economic development

By Kelly Asche Every year the Center publishes the “State of Rural” report – a brief overview of the demographic and economic trends from a rural perspective. This year’s report will be published in December 2021. Over the next few months, we will be writing about some of the trends in the report here on our blog allowing ...

After taking a break over the summer we are happy to be back and discuss some of the future research we have coming out this Fall. On this episode we discuss why our upcoming research will be focused around a general topic – taxes. What we thought, at first, was just coincidence that our topics ...

By Kelly Asche  Every year the Center publishes the “State of Rural” report – a brief overview of the demographic and economic trends from a rural perspective. This year’s report will be published in December 2021. Over the next few months, we will be writing about some of the trends in the report here on our blog allowing ...

  The year 2020 was a stress test on all our systems, especially childcare. The childcare crisis in rural Minnesota was already serious before the pandemic. During the pandemic, it was no longer possible to ignore how important access to childcare is for the average family and how stressed our childcare system is—especially in rural ...

By Whitney Oachs, Elizabeth Gehlen, Josiah Moore & Ryan Redmer Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs graduate students For our full report including results, methodology, bibliography, and glossary of terms, download this PDF. While there has been a lot of talk about diversity in the last year, not much is known about BIPOC (Black, ...

      Thursday, April 29th: Minnesota’s Workforce – Help Wanted, Everywhere Our second Interconnected Conversation focused on the workforce shortage in Minnesota. Panelists discussed the similarities and differences in the workforce shortage between urban and rural Minnesota, how the pandemic affected employment in rural and urban areas differently, and some possible solutions for solving ...

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations A lack of reliable child care was the single biggest problem for employees in America before the pandemic. Now, as parents head back to work, they will be looking for child care, whether it’s with their old provider or a new one, and that will drive up ...

On this week’s episode, Julie talks with Rhonda Otteson, Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, about homelessness in rural Minnesota. It’s easy to overlook since homelessness doesn’t always look the way we think it should. Rhonda and Julie discuss the many hidden factors that put people at risk for homelessness, why the housing situation in Greater ...

Last year finally brought into sharp focus just how important child care is to maintaining a functioning economy. As we noted in our original report on child care, “A Quiet Crisis,” in nearly 80% of Minnesota families, all parents work, and child care issues are the primary cause of absenteeism among American workers. Child care ...