Home to the state's second-largest metro, the Northeast Region has a strong industrial sector, tied largely to the area's abundant natural resources.
Most of the manufacturing base centers on mining and forest products industries. More than half of the sector's employment is in paper and machinery manufacturing.
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6/29/2016 12:04:56 PM
Erik White
Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners provides details on the number of businesses in Northeast Minnesota that are either fully- or equally-owned by minorities – data that isn’t readily available anywhere else. Though it was just 4.3 percent of all classifiable firms, the 7-county Arrowhead region was home to 1,079 minority-owned firms with sales of $143.5 million in 2012.
Interestingly, the vast majority of these businesses are self-employed operations without paid employees, accounting for 897 of the 1,079 firms. Instead, only 182 of these minority-owned firms had paid employees, but they provided more than 1,665 jobs in the Arrowhead region and more than $36.5 million dollars in annual payroll (see Table 1).
Over three-fourths (77.5%) of the minority-owned firms with paid employees in the region are located in St. Louis County, as well as 56.3 percent of minority-owned firms without paid employees. Aitkin County (6.9%) and Carlton County (6.1%) have the highest percent of total firms that are minority-owned, while Cook (3.1%), Itasca (2.6%), and Lake County (1.8%) have the lowest percentages. Overall, the entire region is less diverse than the state, where nearly 50,000 minority-owned businesses make up about 10 percent of total firms (see Table 1).
One way in which DEED is helping to build an economy that works for everyone, everywhere in Minnesota, is by providing grant funding for nonprofits that will use the funds to make loans to Minnesota businesses that are majority-owned and operated by minorities, low-income persons, women, veterans, and/or persons with disabilities in its new Minnesota Emerging Entrepreneur Program (MEEP).
Requests for Proposals are currently being accepted, with a deadline of September 30, 2016. Interested organizations can find for more information about the open Request for Proposal on DEED's website.
Contact Erik White at 218-302-8413.
