Minnesota eating Wisconsin’s economic lunch

My colleague, Paul Tosto, has a loving passion in pointing out Minnesota’s dominance over the state to our east when it comes to the economy. Today, he’s got a little more ammunition from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

In a report today, the Fed says Minnesota is rapidly catching up to Wisconsin in the total number of jobs. Wisconsin has been more populous than Minnesota but the gopher state is closing that gap too.

But for the most part, it’s all about health care, the report says:

Health care job growth in Minnesota was widespread in terms of both geography and subsectors, but not so for Wisconsin, according to EMSI data. Forty percent of Minnesota counties saw health care jobs rise by 18 percent or more since 2005, compared with 22 percent of Wisconsin counties. Hennepin and Ramsey counties (home to Minneapolis and St. Paul) saw health care job growth of 20 percent and 27 percent, respectively. In contrast, health care jobs in Milwaukee County grew by less than 200, or zero percent after rounding. Dane County, home to Madison, beat the Wisconsin average, but still managed just 11 percent growth. – See more at: http://minneapolisfed.typepad.com/roundup/2013/06/healthy-jobs-checkup-minnesota-economy-closing-the-gap-with-wisconsin.html#sthash.EGPkzsi3.dpuf

Minneapolis Federal Reserve