Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September was 2.

Wednesday, October 20, 1999

Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September was 2.5 percent, down from last month’s 2.7 percent and down from last year’s 2.7 percent.

Guess why Minnesota Department of Economic Security Commissioner Earl Wilson was smiling during a visit Tuesday to the Minnesota WorkForce Center at Austin?

The answer is obvious: September continued the 3 percent-or-under trend started in October 1997.

In other words, the state’s unemployment holds steady and remains low.

The job picture couldn’t be brighter – or could it?

Wilson thinks it could and that the changes could come from within.

Minnesota has 53 WorkForce centers, such as the one housed at Riverland Community College-West, where he met with WorkForce center staff, Austin city officials and Riverland faculty.

"Fifty-three WorkForce centers is not a sacrosanct figure to me," Wilson said. "If the funding stays the same, we won’t be able to afford 53 centers."

It is a matter of becoming more efficient; not curtailing services to the unemployed, according to Wilson. Once, there were unemployed, but no jobs. Today, there are jobs, but the ranks of the employable have shrunk.

That’s why Wilson believes Governor Ventura’s mandator to develop WorkForce strategies is so important and why he says the fourth part of the plan, which will be announced next week, is so widely anticipated.

The network of WorkForce Centers was created six years ago and Wilson said locating them at Minnesota technical colleges was the "absolutely best relationship."

He had high praise for the Austin-Albert Lea staff and said the only centers that are suspect are those "on the bubble" or where there is less need for the services or even a geographic duplication with other centers.

While a less-than-three percent – and sometimes less than two percent – jobless rate is idyllic, Wilson said there are areas to be prioritized. One of them is the number of Welfare-To-Work clients.

"Housing, transportation, child care and health care remain very real issues for the Welfare-To-Work citizens in Minnesota," he said, adding the state prevents those citizens from becoming self-sufficient citizens. "You get a pay increase and move to another income level and you lose some of your benefits," he said.

Wilson said employers can fill job vacancies if they "take better advantage of the untapped human resources out there." One of them is the group of active seniors, who retired early, but have time and, most importantly, skills to bring to the work force.

Another group in the "untapped human resource" category, according to Wilson, is those citizens with disabilities, who, the commissioner said, "could be meaningful contributors to the work force."

If there is a need to restructure the state’s network of work force centers and using the Governor’s mandated strategies to fine-tune the way the MDES does business, Wilson also said the state’s secondary and post-secondary students must not go ignored.

While the five fastest-growing jobs are all computer-related, Wilson sees a need to "change the way" young people think about high technology jobs and make them more attractive to today’s graduates.

State Senator Pat Piper (D-Austin) and Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz, Council Member Gloria Nordin and Pat McGarvey, city administrator, were among the visitors who queried Wilson about the labor market and other topics.

Piper said the success stories of skilled job-seekers getting high-paying jobs are laudable, but represent a minority, while the majority struggles to get a livable wage.

"The family structure is changing and I wonder are businesses sensitive to these family issues such as child care, housing and others?" she asked.

Wilson was accompanied by Mick Coleman, assistant MDES commissioner for rehabilitative services, and Kathy Sweeny, liaison for Governor Ventura’s WorkForce Council.

Paul Ehlers, manager of the Austin-Albert Lea offices, and Dorothy Van Hyfte, Austin center coordinator, were among those who queried Wilson on labor market issues.

After the Austin visit, Wilson and his entourage visited centers at Albert Lea, Owatonna and Faribault,

The Governor’s reaction to Tuesday’s bright employment outlook and low jobless rates was to issue a statement, saying, "We continue to add jobs and maintain low unemployment. Now, let’s get the work force we need trained for the 21st Century."