Director's Corner
Happy Spring to all! We are in the midst of legislative session, so we are keeping this issue short. We hope and trust that your excellent work on behalf of job seeker customers and taxpaying investors will continue, and that you will let us know how we can best support you. Cheers!
AA
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Corner On The Market:
Cost of Living in Minnesota
With Rachel Vilsack
As mandated by a new state statute, DEED will conduct an annual cost-of-living study starting in 2014. The study will be prepared by the Labor Market Information Office, along with an interactive data tool that will be developed later this year. The study will provide an additional economic indicator, which may be used by public and private institutions, employment counselors, and job-seeking clients to understand the wage or salary needed to support an individual or family.
The study will estimate a basic-needs cost of living in Minnesota, and specifically the cost of basic needs for individuals and for various family sizes down to a county level. We’ll look specifically at living costs in seven categories: food, housing, health care, transportation, child care, other necessities, and net taxes.
The first results of the study yield the estimated cost of living for a family of four in nine Minnesota counties:
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 Click graph for larger image.
Rather than constituting a description of what income
families today are earning, the our estimates the cost of living which families
would need to meet through full-time income in order to meet basic needs. It is
assumed that the resulting estimates will represent neither a poverty-level,
nor a middle-class living, but rather a safe, healthy, sufficient living. Our interactive data tool will also for the
customization of family sizes, to include the ages and genders of children,
making it one of the most comprehensive cost of living tools in the country.
New Grants
Project Name: Target 2014
MN Teamsters Service Bureau
100 participants anticipated
$400,000 granted
NEG Updates
The Andersen Windows NEG and the Minnesota 2012 Flood NEG
will end on 06/30/2014. We will submit to the program staff and the fiscal
staff the instructions for the closeout before the end of April 2014,
please watch for that.
The next NEG quarterly reports for the period ending March
31, 2014 are due to DOL on May 15, 2014. Please complete the NEG activities in
Workforce One by the end of the day on Friday, April 11, 2014 to help us
run the correct number of participants to prepare the official reports. Project
operators’ data will be due to DEED on Tuesday, May 06, 2014.
Thank you for your work and your partnership.
For questions about NEGs , email our NEG team at DEED.NEG@state.mn.us, or contact the
program staff directly.
Success Story: Jay in Winona County
Jay was laid off from IBM after working there as a
mechanical engineer for 23 years.
Following notice of his layoff, Jay was referred to the Veteran’s
Representative, Scott Metcalf, and to the Winona WorkForce Center. There, Jay was equipped with the information
and resources necessary to take the next step towards reemployment: he was
enrolled in the federal WIA Dislocated Worker program.
Through the WIA DW program, Jay received help with his
resume and cover letter, practiced mock interviews, and discovered job leads
from his counselor and Veteran’s Rep.
Jay was impressed when, at his first interview, the potential employer
asked the same questions Jay had been asked in mock interviews! During this job search period, Jay was even
provided assistance from the WIA DW Program in acquiring interview
clothes. Jay eventually interviewed at
Hearth & Home Technologies in Lake City, through a job lead he had heard
about from the Veteran’s Rep, and was hired!
Jay’s experience with the Winona WorkForce Center was, in
his own words, “outstanding! Everything
I needed was met. I didn’t even realize I had certain needs and they were
met! Working with Scott and Ellen was
outstanding. They asked good questions
and then steered me in the right direction.”
Jay advises other job-seekers in similar situations to “go
to the WorkForce Center and start talking to people. I talked with the receptionist, was set up to
talk with a counselor and was quickly enrolled in the WIA DW Program.”
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