News and Media

Many individuals and small businesses have faced enormous hardships over the last 18 months — illness, layoffs, furloughs, shortages, remote schooling — due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. During this same period, governments too, at both the state and local levels, faced unprecedented challenges as they worked to address th...Continue Reading

“Thank you for all your help and the connection you helped me make with the Dislocated Worker Program.”  That’s what one grateful recipient of a Good Jobs Now call told a CareerForce staff person this summer. Every day CareerForce Job Service Staff have conversations with Minnesotans who are looking for wor...Continue Reading

ST. CLOUD --We now know an official opening date for the Raising Cane's. The popular chicken finger chain will open their St. Cloud location on October 12th. Raising Cane's Restaurant Leader Aleks Stauter says they are looking to hire around 100 employees for full and part-time positions. A hiring event is currently takin...Continue Reading

One of the largest annual competitions and celebrations of craft beer -- the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) -- was held last week in Denver, Colorado. Thousands of breweries from around the country submitted thousands more beers to be judged by a panel of 170 judges for a shot a...Continue Reading

Minnesota lawmakers made headlines earlier this year when they approved a bundle of financial incentives to draw a timber product mill to the city of Cohasset in northern Minnesota. But the Legislature, along with state and county officials, also threw down cash for another project aimed at economic development in norther...Continue Reading

St. Paul - The Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced that 6 businesses are expanding in Minnesota with the help of $2.1 million in awards from the Job Creation Fund (JCF). The 6 projects are expected to leverage $123 million in investments from the companies and create 381 ne...Continue Reading

St. Paul - Minnesota exports of agricultural, mining and manufactured products jumped 29% over the year to $6 billion in the second quarter of 2021, according to a report released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). State exports increased $1.3 billion over the second quarte...Continue Reading

Many building managers have realized that — in the same way that they have a responsibility to keep their occupants safe and healthy — they also have a responsibility to keep the planet safe and healthy. In fact, Johnson Controls found in its 2020 Energy Efficiency Indicator Survey that 6...Continue Reading

St. Paul – The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) today announced Small Cities Development Program (SCDP) grants totaling $19,054,650 for infrastructure and rehabilitation projects in 32 Minnesota cities. SCDP grants are part of the Community Development Block Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmen...Continue Reading

It’s too soon to gauge the ultimate result of the Biden administration’s efforts to address long-standing vulnerabilities in the nation’s supply chains. But findings from the comprehensive Executive Order (E.O.) 14017 “America’s Supply Chains” released on June 8th set out to put the nation on a stronger course. Following th...Continue Reading

St. Paul - The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will begin accepting applications for the Main Street COVID Relief Grants Program on September 20th. This program was approved by the Minnesota State Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Walz on June 30, 2021. A total of $64,200,000 i...Continue Reading

Although 2020’s global pandemic resulted in some projects being stalled or canceled, the annual Shovel Awards recognize many other new and expanded facilities plans that are on track and expected to create thousands of jobs and billions in investment. Area Development’s annual Gold and Silver Shovel Awards recognize states for thei...Continue Reading

September is workforce development month in Minnesota, a time to highlight what CareerForce staff and partners do every day to help connect people who need to work with the employers who need them.  This September, these workforce development professionals throughout the state will continue helping Minnesotans whose enhanced unemployment benefits ar...Continue Reading

This morning, Pete & I were thinking fall weather. That made me think of the brand new Caribou Coffee that's now located on the corner of Lincoln and Division (Highway 23) at the stoplight kiddy corner to Target. I placed our order online so it would be ready when ...Continue Reading

Entrepreneurship isn’t an easy or simple profession, but as with any field, there are basic principles that govern success. The most fundamental truth in entrepreneurship is this: find a problem and be the solution. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, your business must fill a gap, solve a...Continue Reading

When a business is experiencing a decline in revenue or has simply plateaued and is not growing, there can be a number of contributing factors. A global pandemic, new competition, loss of a major customer, weak management, turnover of key employees, or off-target marketing could all have a negative effec...Continue Reading

The landscape has changed dramatically for businesses accessing the labor market pool. Employers have to rethink how to approach prospective employees if they plan on meeting their hiring demands. Job shortages have created a frenzy where companies are scrambling to adopt a new approach to hiring new team members i...Continue Reading

Managing managers can be similar, in some ways, to managing a team — you need to align priorities, communicate goals, provide feedback and serve as a mentor. But the difference in managing managers is that you have to not only oversee their work, but make sure they’re effectively supporting thei...Continue Reading

In 2011, billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, then 56, told an audience in Bangalore that “people under 35 are the people who make change happen. People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.” Khosla defied his own stereotype when, six years later, he became a seed investor in Metawave...Continue Reading

ROCHESTER, Minn. - Community members who receive extra pandemic unemployment benefits have a month to attend a number of webinars aimed at helping Minnesotans find a new career path. The unemployment benefits through Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), will be ending on September 4. Currently, participants ar...Continue Reading

Minnesota's CareerForce system, a network of partners designed to help Minnesotans find jobs, is essential to our economic recovery from the pandemic. DEED plays an important role in this system, and we're committed to evolving our efforts to better connect Minnesotans with family-sustaining work – and help employers find th...Continue Reading

The challenges facing rural America are well-known and exhaustively documented. Chronically shrinking populations beget shrinking tax bases and shriveling public services. Town squares board up. Hospitals close. The most promising youth light out for elsewhere, just as lack of reliable internet now helps to quash most any notion of winnin...Continue Reading

The State of Nevada is on top of things. For close to 10 years, they’ve been focused on where industry is going and what it means for the future of work in the state. State leaders like Bob Potts, deputy director at the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) hav...Continue Reading

At the Minnesota Chamber's recent Women in Business Conference: Changemakers from challenges, a group of four women entrepreneurs who took part in the Mall of America’s Community Commons program shared their inspirational stories. Community Commons is a space within Mall of America that offers a temporary home for 17 businesse...Continue Reading