Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve lost almost 390,000 jobs in Minnesota. While we’re on the path to gaining many of them back, we still have over 300,000 Minnesotans collecting weekly unemployment benefits – more the six times the average amount for this time of year.

Yet so many employers are hiring, and there’s lots of opportunity in our economy if workers are willing to pursue careers in new fields.

That’s why today we launched a new effort to help Minnesotans across the state find Good Jobs Now. The effort is focused on helping unemployed Minnesotans consider jobs in new fields. As I wrote about earlier this week in MinnPost, we know that to maximize our economic recovery we need to help workers find careers that require additional skills, have a strong future, and offer better pay.

Helping us kick off this campaign today are a great group of leaders from higher education, businesses, health care, workforce development, labor unions, and technology leaders. We held an important conversation focused on the needs businesses have for workers, and how we might all work together to help Minnesotans whose jobs have been impacted and are ready to look for new and equitable career opportunities.

Why good jobs now? Because there’s more opportunities in Minnesota’s economy than people might think – for anyone who’s looking for a new career. That could mean entering a new industry right away, it could mean looking into more education or training, or it could mean finding out more about the job market. We are here to help with all of that.

The sweet spot for a job seeker is a job that is not only in high demand, but has some retraining component that supports skills advancement. That’s because retraining gives people credentials and new skills that provide additional flexibility and economic opportunity. A recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that those most in danger in America’s economic recovery are those with a high school degree or less.

Here in Minnesota, the most plentiful opportunities for better jobs tend to be in health care and information technology, but there are also opportunities in construction; installation, maintenance, and repair; manufacturing, and office work. Many employers may offer on-the-job training for these new opportunities.

At DEED, we’re significantly ramping up our work to help unemployed Minnesotans find jobs. We’ve transformed how we're reaching people who need our services most, with staff from CareerForce locations across the state contacting thousands of unemployed Minnesotans directly to proactively discuss these opportunities, assess their skills, and connect them with new job and training opportunities.

And we’ve created a resource hub that has all the tools to help job seekers in their journey, at CareerForceMN.com/GoodJobsNow.

The economy is changing, and Minnesota needs to proactively plan to meet future needs. If we do the right things, we can set our state up to be a leading hub of the American recovery that lies ahead. To get there, we need to help more people consider new opportunities in the next chapter of Minnesota’s economy.

Please join us in helping Minnesotans find Good Jobs Now.