By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi Territory
MINNESOTA — Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota officially said which specific job fields would reportedly benefit from parts of a $20-million money pot in the “Star of the North” state, according to a news release from the state leader’s office Tuesday.
Those announced fields are defined by Walz’s office as being in “high demand” and are listed as: Technology, the trades, caring professions, manufacturing, and education.
The goal, according to the Minnesota governor’s office, is to “prepare more Minnesotans for high-demand jobs . . .”
Gov. Walz described this as a “new effort” that invests in “job training programs” to “grow the workforce for the future.”
Walz asserted in the release that this state-run job development program is “good,” backed by tens of millions of dollars and is helpful to businesses with the potential to “lead” Minnesota residents into “fulfilling careers and earn family-sustaining wages.”
Like many such programs, this one is also “grant funded,” Walz said, who assigned descriptors routinely used nationwide in other such homespun economic-development initiatives.
It’s propped up with hopeful assurances from the Minnesota governor’s office that these efforts will fuel businesses and industries through state grants aimed at bolstering “workforce training and business organizations.”
It’s model suggests that the plan should “place an estimated 1,200 Minnesotans over the next 15 months in high-demand jobs, benefiting an estimated 3,000 Minnesota businesses.” The plan also details other hopeful outcomes such as achieving “family-sustaining wages for workers,” which the news release defines as “a median hourly wage at or above $19.46.”
The $20 million announced by Walz Tuesday, according to the news release, is part of a larger overall state effort “investing more than $216 million” job programs.
The full list of recipients can be seen under the “News” tab at mn.gov/governor/newsroom.
