Minnesota Economic Trends: Sept. 2025 Issue

Every quarter, the Labor Market Information (LMI) Office of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) publishes research articles that offer insights into important labor market trends. The September 2025 issue includes the following articles:

The Effect of Childhood Poverty on the Wages of Minnesota High School Graduates

Childhood poverty is associated with reduced adult earnings. How big is this reduction among Minnesota high school graduates? A new data visualization tool documents the effects of growing up poor on wages and identifies factors that, if not addressed, can perpetuate the cycle of intergenerational poverty. This article explores the effect of race, school poverty, and postsecondary education on the protracted effect of childhood poverty on adult wages.

Emerging Technologies in Information Technology Occupations

Information Technology jobs are heavily based on the platforms and technologies that are in use. In the years since the last Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) revision in 2018, those tools have changed rapidly, so this article explores tech occupation domains as a way to surface hybrid IT roles that traditional taxonomies miss.

Insights from the frontlines: A New Tool Reveals a Shifting Labor Market

Most Minnesota workforce development professionals surveyed say it is harder for job seekers to find employment compared to last year. This article highlights shifts in the difficulty of landing a job from a new survey of CareerForce workforce practitioners.

What’s Driving the Growth in Self-Employment?

Extending the recent surge in self-employment, new data released by the Census Bureau in May show that Minnesota added nearly 11,000 more nonemployer establishments from 2022 to 2023, a further 2.4% increase. This article includes recently released 2022–2023 Nonemployer Statistics with visualizations by industry and demographic characteristics of owners.

Projections vs. Models: Tools for Understanding the Future of Minnesota’s Clean Economy Workforce

Ever wonder where “jobs created” numbers come from? This article explains how these tools work, their limits, and how they’re being applied to climate and infrastructure planning here and across the country.