Did the Economic Lot of Minnesotans Improve During the 1990 s ?

At the end of 2003, national and local newspapers carried stories of worsening economic conditions for Americans. For the second year in a row, household income fell and the poverty rate rose. Midwesterners and people of color were particularly hard hit. Minnesotans, however, escaped the worsening economic situation. In Minnesota, median income and the poverty rate remained level. In 2002, median household income in Minnesota was 30% above the national level and the poverty rate was about half the national rate. With signs of a recovery from the “jobless recovery” of the last year or so, guarded optimism seems to be returning, at least on the job front. Although it is natural to focus on short-term ups and downs in economic conditions, economic progress is best measured over much longer periods of time than one or two years. In the mid-1990s, we published two reports for CURA on the changing economic fortunes of Minnesotans during the rather turbulent 1980s, a time of stagnating real earnings and rising poverty rates. We found that poverty rates among people of color were three to four times those of White Minnesotans, and that Minnesotans of color were considerably less likely to hold a “good” job than were comparable White Minnesotans. We found that the keys to avoiding poverty are clear: work and productive attributes such as education and English language proficiency, which increase the chances of employment and increased earnings. Did the Economic Lot of Minnesotans Improve During the 1990s?