DEED provided a report to the legislature on January 15, 2024 on an inventory of economic and workforce development programs in Minnesota as per the following charge below:
“Under Minnesota Statutes §116L.35, the Commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is required to provide an inventory of all economic and workforce development programs, either provided by or overseen by any agency of the state of Minnesota and funded by federal or state dollars. This bi-annual report is mandated to include a summary of any workforce or economic development programs, including a description, funding source and allocation, a count of full-time equivalent staff, number of program participants and their demographics, where applicable, and quantifiable measures of program success. Demographics and outcomes provided are for the period noted in the summary. No direct appropriations made to organizations by the legislature are included in this inventory.”
This is a preliminary analysis. I request this committee to collect more comprehensive data and make it available to the public.
This report is very useful as it includes contact information of the program officers for each of these programs.
Of the 25 State Departments, 9 did not respond.
169 economic and workforce development programs were identified.
Out of these only around 25 percent provide demographic data on program utilization by ALANA (African Latino Asian and Native American) populations. About a third of DEED programs provided this demographic breakdown of program participants. There are also new DEED programs that are to be launched. DEED’s status would improve if we add data from the Uniform Report Card that provides detailed breakdown of various workforce programs.
Some programs stated they collected demographic data but did not provide it. About a dozen programs are new.
Departments which did not report any program demographic data include Agriculture, Film Board, Health, Corrections, Pollution Control Agency, Public Facilities Authority, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, and Veteran Affairs.
The departments that did not respond to the survey were: The State Arts Board, Commerce, Human Rights, Management and Budget, Metropolitan Council, MNIT, Natural Resources, Public Safety and Revenue.
Policy Recommendations
- In the presence of stark racial disparities in Minnesota it is important that departments report racial demographics of program participants.
- The Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government need to actively monitor the fair participation of ALANA communities in various taxpayer funded programs.
- We need comprehensive reporting across state agencies of the utilization of ALANA businesses in public spending and contracts.
- We need a directory of these programs with contact information and how to apply for these programs be provided online on the DEED portal – in a user-friendly dashboard format where the public can sort the data for easy access.
Thank You.
