During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020), government officials expected unemployment to increase significantly as businesses and schools across the state shut down or severely limited their operations. Ten months later, however, while unemployment continues to be a top concern of government officials, the employment landscape…

After a year of COVID, spiking unemployment, closed schools, and restricted businesses, rural Minnesotans may be looking at a unique opportunity in economic development. Since the Great Recession, rural employers have been dealing with an ever-growing job vacancy rate, which was discussed in the report, "The Pandemic Paints a Different…