The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reports that the state unemployment rate has hit 4.8 percent, its lowest point since 2007, before the recession that began in 2008-2009. However, Iron Range unemployment remains higher: 6 percent in the Virginia area; 7 percent in Hibbing, and 7.6 percent in Grand Rapids. These numbers trail only Bemidji (7.3 percent) and Brainerd (9 percent) for the highest in Minnesota.
Duluth’s jobless rate of 4.7 percent is better than the state average.
The Mesabi Daily News has the story. They report that despite higher unemployment on the Iron Range, about 200 jobs were created in the mining and logging sector. (In practicality, these jobs were most likely almost all from mining). That’s the good news, but belies the fact that job gains in mining will be hard pressed to keep up with job losses in other sectors due to population loss and demographic aging.
Fundamentally, there’s no reason to fear the “end of the Iron Range.” Duluth’s success alone will ensure it’s viability as an economic region, not to mention the continued need for at least some mining and health care here. It’s an affordable, quirky place to live, near water and natural amenities, a desirable position for the rest of the 21st Century.
But these mixed economic numbers show the challenge we face in stark terms. Iron Range unemployment will be a lingering problem so long as our infrastructure and high-needs older population exceeds the economic activity generated by younger people in fewer numbers.
The answer is straightforward:
If the younger folks sign up for an Obamacare plan they don’t need, the older folks will stick around, unemployment remains high, the younger folks are poorer with less money to spend, the economy suffers.
If the younger folks don’t sign up for Obamacare, they’ll have more money in their pockets to spend on goods/services perking up the local economy….and the older folks will head to Texas and Florida, unemployment will drop.