MinnEcon Category Archive: Education

Help wanted, bring sheepskin

Posted at 11:17 AM on November 16, 2011 by Bill Catlin (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

A segment in today's Marketplace Morning Report cited a report that estimates Minnesota ranks fifth among the states and Washington, D.C. in future job openings that will require post-secondary education.

The numbers are fairly stark: "Between 2008 and 2018, new jobs in Minnesota requiring postsecondary education and training will grow by 152,000 while jobs for high school graduates and dropouts will grow by 28,000."

The Minnesota profile is here.

The full report is here.

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Generations of 'lost' Minnesota workers?

Posted at 3:35 PM on October 5, 2011 by Paul Tosto (1 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

The fastest growing student populations in Minnesota's schools -- the people who you will increasingly depend upon in your old age to pay taxes, keep your Social Security solvent, build Minnesota's economy and its quality of life -- are the least prepared to take on that future.

It's a point I've made repeatedly during the recession and "recovery," starting in July of 2009 when a federal report showed Minnesota with some of the widest racial achievement gaps in the nation.

Two-plus years later, not much has changed. Data on Minneapolis student achievement released in a report today from the Minneapolis Foundation and Wilder Foundation reinforces what we've known for a long time.

You can find the full report here.

I covered schools in the Twin Cities for more than a decade before coming to MPR News. I'm not being cynical when I say there isn't much new in the data. Here's a blurb from Minnesota's fourth grade reading report on the National Assessment of Educational Progress:

In 2009, Black students had an average score that was 35 points lower than that of White students. This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1992 (34 points).

So we're talking about 20 years of gap in that measure alone.

Looking through today's report, I pulled out three telling graphs.

The first tells you the scope of the problem in the earliest grades.

The second gives you a sense of how intractable the problems are. Third grade reading performance is a pretty decent predictor of who graduates.

Remarkably, there is no gap when it comes to the issue of how satisfied people are in the Minneapolis schools.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

Since I write about the economy, now, though, I can tell you we should all be worried about what it means for the state's economic future.

Earlier this year, state demographer Tom Gillaspy and his colleagues wrote of a disturbing and growing mismatch between the skills of those looking for work and the skills employers seek to hire" and a "lost generation" of Minnesota workers, "where those with the necessary skills do very well while those without the desired skills will struggle economically for the remainder of their lives."

The Minneapolis Foundation / Wilder Foundation report data make it clear that Gillaspy's "lost generation" metaphor could extend way beyond the recession.

It's a future where Minnesota doesn't have the talent to fill the jobs the state needs the most but must still contend with a surplus of workers whose skills no longer match up with the economy's needs.

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Widening jobless gap between 'some college' vs. bachelor's

Posted at 4:00 PM on February 4, 2011 by Paul Tosto (2 Comments)
Filed under: Education

Will a little college insulate you in this recession? Maybe not.

We know that people with high school educations or less get hit harder in economic downturns and the Great Recession is proving that.

But the last few years have also widened the gap between people with some college and those with a four year degree or more.

Plowing through U.S. unemployment data today, we started looking at education levels and were surprised to see how jobless rates have worsened for people with some college compared to those who've been able to finish a bachelor's or better.

Here's a chart breaking down January unemployment by education level for people 25 and older

This second chart focuses on the January unemployment differences for people with some college, again for people 25 and older. The 2008 figures would be the first month after the Great Recession officially began.
BLS doesn't produce seasonally adjusted data for the "some college, no degree" category. So we had to use unadjusted data to compare associate's degree, bachelor's or better or some college.

Definitely interested in what readers take away from the data. Post something below or contact us directly at MinnEcon.

I'm struck by the gap between the unemployment rate of people with some college but no degree and those with a bachelor's. The "some college" jobless rate isn't much better than the rate for people with only a high school degree.

Ten years ago, there was less than a two percentage point difference in the unemployment rate of people with a bachelor's or better compared to those with some college and no degree.

The data also raise some concerns for all those folks who've returned to college. Enrollment in Minnesota's state's two year community and technical college system jumped by more than 10,000 students during 2008 and 2009.

We don't have updated unemployment rates by education for the state. But if the breakdown is similar to the nation, there may be a lot of folks who thought they were better protected than they were against the Great Recession.

BONUS: Here are links to the raw data used in the charts. If we've made any errors, drop us a line and let us know and we'll correct.

Chart One:
Less than a high school diploma, seasonally adjusted
High school diploma only, seasonally adjusted
Some college or Associate's degree, seasonally adjusted
Bachelor's degree and higher, seasonally adjusted

Chart Two:
Some college, no degree, seasonally unadjusted
Associate's degree, seasonally unadjusted
Bachelor's degree or higher, seasonally unadjusted

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Some college, no degree?

Posted at 5:08 PM on December 1, 2010 by Paul Tosto (2 Comments)
Filed under: Education

A Georgetown University report earlier this year concluded that Minnesota, Massachusetts and Colorado will lead the nation in the share of total jobs requiring post secondary education.

That's awesome if you finished college. The reality is some 37 million Americans attended college but never received a degree.

These are folks in Minnesota and around the country that we've been concerned about.

The Georgetown report notes, "Post secondary education and training determine access to the middle class. Those with only a high school diploma or less are falling out of the middle class."

Our colleagues at American Radio Works want to tell the stories of folks who have some college but no degree -- and they need your help.

We've been reaching out to folks in MPR's Public Insight Network who've told us they've taken some college classes or were at least interested in attending college.

Please take five minutes and share your insight. What should we know about students who attend college but don't finish?

Post something below or use our handy form. Share a story or pass this on to someone you know who's taken classes without earning a degree.

Help make our reporting smarter.

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3 questions for the next U president

Posted at 8:15 AM on November 17, 2010 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

Early last week, I called upon my grand prognostication powers and told colleagues I expected the next U president to be a female from the west coast from an institution the U already counted as a peer.

Then came Friday's announcement that Eric Kaler, the single candidate for the job and likely next president is a male, coming from the East Coast, at an institution outside of the U's peer group.

Ouch: 0 for 3. Given what I do know about the U and its ambitions, however, count me as surprised. With Kaler set for public interviews today, here are my questions for the next U president.

How does the U get to the middle of its peer group on key measures.

Five-plus years ago, the U made huge changes as part of its Strategic Positioning push, changes that U leaders hoped would transform the university into one of the top three public research universities in the world.

As part of that, the U killed General College, a portal to the university for many high-potential but low performing teens, and introduced an Honors Program intended to attract some of the best and brightest from Minnesota and across the country.

Yet, half way through its "top three in the world" campaign, the U's been unable to crack the top three in the Big 10, let alone the world, on some of the undergraduate rankings it cares about most.

Here's information drawn from the university's most recent accountability report. Click on the images for a larger view.

While it's made strides in graduation rates and drawing more high school students from the top 10 percent of their graduating classes, it still sits near the bottom of its peer group and below Michigan and Madison, the universities it aspires to be.

The U's pushed to improve graduation rates and has made progress in getting more students to graduate on time. But it remains way below peer schools. A few years ago the U set a goal of having 60 percent of undergrads graduating in four years by 2012. With only two years to go, the trend lines don't look promising to meet that goal.

What's Kaler's plan to meet those benchmarks?

Where will the money come from to drive those bioscience buildings?

The U made a big push at the Legislature a few years ago to get the state to pay much of the roughly $300 million cost for several new biomedical sciences buildings near the football stadium, including a Cancer-Cardiovascular Facility set to start construction next year.

U President Robert Bruininks sold the Legislature on the bioscience buildings largely on economic grounds, arguing that the U and Minnesota would lose out to Wisconsin, California and other states in the pursuit of biomedical dollars and jobs unless these buildings got built. He won the day.

Now, though, the U has to show it can fill the space with researchers who can win research dollars, especially federal money from the National Institutes of Health.

Despite the U's status as a major research institution, it's finding an increasingly competitive race for federal research money. Here are charts from the U's 2009 research report.

While the federal stimulus bill (ARRA in the chart) provided some cushion, the U took a step back in overall research awards in 2009.

Despite lots of discoveries, the U's struggled to turn research into revenue -- 90 percent of the $95.2 million it earned last year from commercializing research came from one source -- the anti-AIDS drug Ziagen. While revenues are growing from non-Ziagen research, the totals remain small and the U's looking at a potentially huge revenue drop in a few years after the last Ziagen patent expires.

With the U unable to count on significant state funding increases and its endowment struggling in the recession, the quest for more federal research money and commercial dollars is vital.

Kaler's Stony Brook U. connection to the Brookhaven National Laboratory likely gives him a head start on this. But the basic question stands: What's the plan?

What about tuition?

Tuition is the bread-and-butter issue for Minnesota families. It's a concern that comes up consistently in the U's public opinion surveys.

When it comes to resident tuition and required fees, the U Twin Cities is one of the most expensive state flagship universities in the country (pdf. page 8), rising 80 percent the past decade (inflation adjusted).

The U often counters that data by noting the significant commitment it's made in scholarship and student aid. True. But the system is showing some cracks.

Several U deans told faculty this fall that the current scholarship system is unsustainable (Hat tip to Bill Gleason's Periodic Table blog.)

If the scholarship system isn't sustainable, and you're not going to slash tuition, how do you keep the U affordable for Minnesotans?

All of these questions are hard to answer. Kaler will need to confront them all.

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Home equity isn't paying for college?

Posted at 10:17 AM on August 24, 2010 by Paul Tosto (3 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

I have three years until my first kid heads for college and I just assumed I'd be relying on the (remaining) equity in my home to pay for a big chunk of the tuition.

I'm rethinking that now after looking at surprising survey data showing home equity isn't the college financing tool I thought.

The report by Sallie Mae, the national college finance organization, shows home equity makes up only a sliver of the resources used by families to pay for higher education.

Middle-income families used home equity in slightly greater amounts than high-income families. Yet, overall, home equity only paid for 3 percent of the typical middle income family's college cost.

Scholarships and parent income are paying for college at levels higher than I expected. The report also notes, "Despite another year of sharp increases in college costs, more than half of families continue to pay for college without borrowing."

For those who do borrow, here's a breakdown of the parent borrowing piece (click for a larger view).

My first thought was that home equity is a small chunk now because equity's taken such a huge hit the past few years. Many people don't have any home equity left to spend for their kids' college.

And yet, Sallie Mae said the use of home equity credit grew this year compared to 2009.

The good news, I suppose, is that there are a lot more options beyond home equity and massive student loan debt to pay for college. Many families are cash-flowing a lot more college expense than I realized, which is encouraging and scary to me at the same time.

How are you paying for college? Doing anything creative or unusual? We know that families who've been hit hard by the recession are asking colleges to boost financial aid.

My colleague Tim Post reported this week that more grandparents are picking up the tab.

His report sparked a cool Facebook debate on whether students are working hard enough to pay their own way.

What's your plan? Post something below or drop us a line and share your knowledge.

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Worrisome statistic and chart of the day

Posted at 12:55 PM on July 7, 2010 by Chris Farrell (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education

From chief economics correspondent Chris Farrell

In a McKinsey Global Institute study on U.S. multinational corporations this statistic stood out:

Forty years ago, the United States was a leader in high school graduation rates; today, it ranks 18th out of 24 industrialized nations.

This chart makes it visually clear that we've lost ground on high school graduation rates since the early '70s.Since hitting 77% back then the high school completion rate has declined to 69%. Simply put, these are scary numbers.

Yet the rate of return on getting a high school diploma is very high. For instance, a suggestion paper by economists James J. Heckman, Lance J. Lochner, and Petra E. Todd suggests a 40% return on getting a high school diploma and some 65% for black men. (You can read the paper here.)

Here is an intriguing set of numbers trying to estimate the economic impact in Minneapolis of boosting the high school compeletion rate in the school system. I realize that these are guesstimates by the Alliance for Excellent Education (a good think tank on the issue), but I found this figure particularly striking:

The region would likely see increased human capital, with 53 percent of these new graduates likely continuing on to pursue some type of postsecondary education after earning a high school diploma.

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Government pay vs. private wages

Posted at 2:23 PM on March 30, 2010 by Chris Farrell (9 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

From chief economics correspondent Chris Farrell

Are government workers overpaid relative to private sector employees? That question came up on two separate occasions recently, once when I was moderating a panel in St. Cloud and another time while giving a talk in Dassel. Both times the questioner was upset that government workers make an average of $70,000 while private sector workers pocket an average of $45,000. I'm not sure where that extreme difference in pay came from. Nevertheless, I have seen various news reports putting the government worker premium at $8,000. That's still a large number.

But is the pay differential true? This is going to be a long post. But it's an important topic. And while I think the wage concern isn't warranted there is a worry, as we'll see.

First, let's look at pay. Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, convincingly argues that the pay gap is a misleading statistic for federal workers compared to private sector workers. The key is education and experience. He ran the numbers:

But the truth is that a comparison of federal and private-sector pay, even by occupation, is misleading because the employees hired by the federal government often have higher levels of education than their counterparts in the private sector - even within the same occupations. When you factor in the education and experience of the federal workforce, there is no statistically significant difference in average pay levels.

He uses the example of registered nurses working at the Veterans Administration.

They care for the complex injuries and illnesses of our wounded warriors and veterans. Partly reflecting the complexity of the care they deliver, nurses working for the federal government are more than twice as likely to have a college degree as those employed by the private sector (24 percent relative to 11 percent). As another example, database administrators are twice as likely to have a post-collegiate degree in the federal government as those working in the private sector (31 percent versus 16 percent).

He continues with an apples-to-apples comparison.

Overall, roughly half the federal workforce has a college degree, compared to about a third in the private sector. Most of the difference (82 percent) in average pay between the federal government and the private sector is explained by these differences in education. Holding education constant, federal workers earn $1,604 more than their private-sector counterparts on average. That is where the experience of the federal workforce comes into play. More experienced workers tend to earn more, and the federal workforce, by and large, is older on average than the private workforce. If you hold education and age constant - and thus have an apples to apples comparison - federal employees earn slightly less than those in the private sector on average, although the difference is not statistically significant.

In other words, after taking into account education and age the difference between the federal and the private sector disappears

What about the state of Minnesota? It's essentially the same story. I contacted Steve Hine, research director at the Labor Market Information Office for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. He quickly put together some state-wide numbers. The figures aren't comparable to Orzag's adjusted numbers, but they're suggestive: The public sector wage premium disappears after making important adjustments, especially education and skill.

Specifically, public administration hourly wages in Minnesota are 7% higher than private sector wages, $23.08 per hour vs. $21.59. It's a gap of $1.49. (His data breaks down employment levels by major occupational category. It's broken out into private sector industries and the public administration industry. It doesn't quite capture the differences between the private sector and all government workers since some government workers are in industries other than the public administration, most importantly in education and health care. Still, the total number of employees in public administration makes up a majority of employment in government.)

Yet that overall figure masks important differences. For instance, in the "protective service occupations" pay on the government side is 51% higher than in the private sector side of the ledger. But the public industry category includes state troopers and county sheriffs while security guards are on the private side. In in the management occupations, government wages are 73% of what the private sector pays.

More importantly, government has a relatively high employment concentration in the higher paying occupations that require a college education or more. Hines points out that the legal, science, business and engineering groups are all relatively high-paying and the share of government employment in these groups is higher than in the private sector. On the other hand, low-paying sales jobs and food serving jobs are under-represented in government. "I did a quick calculation and estimated that if the employment distribution in government was the same as that in the private sector, the average government wage rate would be $21.30, a percent or two below the private wage of $21.59," he says.

In essence, the wage gap isn't a worry. It largely reflects the rewards to education.

However, there is a big difference between the private sector and the public sector: Benefits. The recent trend shows a disturbing increase in government worker benefits vs. the private worker benefits. Economist Michael Mandel on his blog Mandel on Innovation and Growth notes that public-and private-sector worker benefits moved together until 2004. Companies started clamping down on benefits, but the public sector didn't.

Most of the difference has to do with retirement benefits. State and local government pensions aren't in great shape already. It's a worry.

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Improving college attendance

Posted at 11:17 AM on February 26, 2010 by Chris Farrell (2 Comments)
Filed under: Education

From chief economics correspondent Chris Farrell

On Wednesday, the 24th, Paul had a thoughtful post on college financial aid. In Leveling with colleges about your financial problems he offers up some sound advice for families that have had a setback during the Great Recession.

It got me to thinking about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Parents have to fill it out if they want their student to get financial aid. It's a complicated form despite recent efforts to streamline it. The financial aid system that developed in the post World War 11 era was initially modeled after the U.S. progressive income tax. Over the years, like the tax code, it has evolved into a messy stew of Byzantine rules.

One of my favorite stories about FAFSA came from Thomas Kane, one of the nation's leading education economists. He worked at the White House Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton Administration. The head of the Council at the time was Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and brilliant scholar. Kane recalls walking into Stiglitz's office, finding him surrounded with papers, looking extremely frustrated. What was up? A recession in the making? The details of fiscal policy? No, Stiglitz was struggling to make sense of financial aid forms for a college-bound child. Imagine how bad it is when the process confuses someone like Stiglitz?

Here's the thing: FAFSA's complexity plays a role in the long running and highly disturbing gap in college attendance between students from high income families and students from low income families. In The Role of Simplification and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block FAFSA Experiment (NBER Working Paper No. 15361), scholars Eric Bettinger, Bridget Terry Long, Philip Oreopoulos, and Lisa Sanbonmatsu make the case that simplification and counseling together could boost college attendance and aid, especially among low income students. Better information alone won't do the job.

The scholars targeted families unlikely to know about much about college and financial aid. The professional tax service H&R Block participated in the experiment. (There's a fitting symmetry to this considering the evolution of financial aid.) Tax professionals helped low- to moderate- income families complete FAFSA. The families were given estimates of their eligibility for government aid. They were told about schooling options.

A randomly-chosen group only got personalized aid-eligibility information.

The payoff from counseling? The students who worked with the professionals were 40 percent more likely to apply for financial aid than the information-only control group. The submission rate of aid applications almost tripled for independent students with a high school degree but no college education.

There are many reasons why students from low income families don't attend college anywhere near the rate of their better off peers. A number of the issues are difficult to tackle, like poverty and lousy schools. However, this scholarly paper suggests there are some relatively easy changes to make that could dramatically improve the college attendance and life prospects of many young people from low-to moderate-income backgrounds.

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Leveling with colleges about your financial problems

Posted at 10:00 AM on February 24, 2010 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

Telling strangers you need help isn't easy. Telling your son's college you need more financial aid than the feds say you need can be unnerving. But in this recession, you need to ask.

"We have that conversation every year with our son's college," Sandy Christensen told us recently, "and every year they come through for us."

Her family income's taken a hit the past few years and they've had to use up much of their savings. But Christensen says her son's school, Washington University in St. Louis, has worked with them to boost the annual aid package so he can afford to stay.

We wrote last year about how some colleges were providing more aid to students after learning of a parent who recently lost a job or suffered some hardship that hit after the aid package was put together. Those needs have only worsened with the recession.

So what do you do? Christensen, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network from Burnsville, offered a road map. "When we first began the college search, we were already strapped for money," she says.

Two pieces of good advice that we were given: 1.) If you don't have money, apply to the large, expensive, private schools, as they are the ones with money to give; 2.) Don't spend money traveling to visit schools unless your child has been accepted at them, otherwise you are wasting money.

Alex applied to Iowa State, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis.

We had toured Northwestern his junior year and our tour guide had told us that if you can get accepted they can find a way to get you paid for. However, when we visited a second time and met with the financial aid office, we didn't get the same story. The person who met with us was filling in from another office and really wasn't interested in refining our package.

At Vanderbilt, we told the financial aid person that we didn't have the dollars to make it work. She responded that they really didn't need our son. Nice.

At Wash U, we happened to end up with the director of financial services, who chatted with us and learned more about us, then looked up Alex's application and info on his computer, then said that he would be happy to put together a better package for us that we could afford, including a Wash-U sponsored loan package for us. We waited anxiously for a week or two until the revised offer arrived, and it was very generous.

Alex really wanted to go to Northwestern, so times were tough briefly and he struggled with financial reality and then finally came to terms with going to Wash U instead. He was VERY happy with this decision well before finishing his freshman year, thank goodness, and is still having an amazing college experience.

What made the difference? Christensen believes it was who they met with in the financial aid office at each school.

"It also matters that you are direct, honest, and sincere," she added. "I remember telling the director truthfully that we had put all of our time and resources into raising a good kid rather than into making lots of money."

Most of are conditioned to believe that when we fill out the federal student aid form and it spits out a calculation of expected family contribution, that's it.

Bill Witbrodt, Washington University's director of student financial services (and the person who met with Sandy Christensen's family about financial aid), says it needs to be the start of the process.

"It's kind of intimidating to ask for (more) financial aid," says Witbrodt, who notes Washington added $3 million, roughly five percent, to the student aid budget. Undergrad tuition and fees run nearly $40,000 and he says about 60 percent receive aid.

For many families, he says, it's the first time they've ever had to ask for help. Some withdraw without asking what's possible. "We just don't want a student disappearing off the radar screen."

It helps, of course, to have a kid that a college wants. "Obviously, if you are begging for money, you need to be 'selling' them a good product," says Christensen, noting Alex was active in youth government and sports, was an Eagle Scout and had solid grades.

He's a junior now, "and our circumstances have gotten worse," she adds. "My husband lost his job a year and a half or so ago, then he took a lower-paying one. Each year when the new financial package arrives, we just email them with any circumstances that are not reflected in our taxes/FAFSA. They usually have improved the offer accordingly."

BONUS INFO:
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has a terrific page laying out the extra financial aid help from the federal stimulus bill.

The Minnesota Office of Higher Education also has a Web site devoted to paying for college.

The higher ed office recently updated its page on what to do it you're a college student and your family's income has been reduced.

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Looking for a job, long distance

Posted at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2010 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

Minor Baker and his wife Sarah earned their teaching degrees in the Twin Cities but left when the job prospects right out of college didn't seem great.

Now as seasoned educators they hope to return. But they're finding that a job search from 1,200 miles away is a challenge in any economy and doubly so in a recession.

We've written a lot about the struggles of Minnesotans laid off and looking for work in this economy.

But we hadn't thought about the unique challenges of looking for a job long distance until Baker, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network, offered us a view.

With young kids now and family ties in Minnesota, the pair are searching for school jobs but finding a much different market than they left.

"We moved to Texas because we knew that we could get teaching jobs without spending years subbing, and we also figured it was very unlikely we would face the prospect of having our jobs cut because of budget concerns," says Baker.

"We were both able to find jobs that first year. In our eight years in Austin, we both got our master's and eventually started working as school administrators."

The biggest difference between our move to Austin, and now our search to return, is that when we considered moving to Austin, we could see there were LOTS of jobs (still the case) and we always figured as long as we were relentless we would get interviews and eventually jobs.

In MN, there just hasn't appeared to be an abundance of jobs for a number of years. In fact, we more often read about continued cuts to education spending, and we hear from our friends that stuck around about getting their job cut or fear of job cuts.

But it seems to boil down to: Network hard and don't get discouraged.

"It is very tough to do a full court press on district HR offices to get interviews," Baker says. "and if you do get an interview how often are people going to hire a leader of a school without ever seeing that person? Never.

"So do you then pay to fly up for interviews? Bag charges alone are killer. Can you coordinate multiple interviews over a trip? Extremely difficult."

The good news is that they are searching from a position of strength. They're employed in jobs where they're happy and at this point can wait for better times.

Baker says they're confident that they get the chance to move back to Minnesota. "But it may have to wait another year or two. Hopefully, Minnesota is reaching the bottom..."

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Have you ever tried to look for work long distance? Post something below or contact me directly.

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For older students, an unhappy reunion with the Big Test

Posted at 5:00 PM on December 31, 2009 by Paul Tosto (5 Comments)
Filed under: Education

Remember taking that last ACT exam? It got you into college and you thought: "I'm done forever with the Big Test!" Then the recession hit and you decided to go to grad school.

Now you're swimming through those math, logic and reading comprehension questions, wondering who talked you into it.

We know the lousy economy is driving thousands of 30-and-older Minnesotans back to school. Standing in the way for some? The standardized test and all the butterflies that come with it.

We got tuned into this concern by a Twin Cities teacher who's part of MPR's Public Insight Network and preps students for the Graduate Record Exam.

She asked not to be identified. But she opened a window for us onto what she's seeing: adults, years removed from school, worrying like teens. They're frustrated by tests that seem pointless, working through the anxiety of a timed exam, nervous about how they'll do and what it might do to them.

"One of the main stumbling blocks older students face with regard to college admission tests is that their math is very rusty," she said. "Many haven't worked with right triangles or exponents, for instance, since high school, and that may have been ten or more years ago."

Also, they may not have recent experience reading challenging texts using academic vocabulary outside their area of immediate interest, another skill these exams test.

Another challenge for all test takers, but particularly for older students who haven't taken a test for many years, is the rigorous timing of the tests -- the computer-adaptive tests allow only 30 to 90 seconds per question.

This can be especially stressful for someone who's been in a work environment for years, where one is generally allowed more leeway in managing time to solve problems, rather than a school environment.

We wanted to see if there was more here than just an anecdote or two. We checked in with test prep giant Kaplan. "Your theory is supported by data," Russell Schaffer, Kaplan's senior communications manager, told us, citing the GMAT, the gatekeeper test for graduate business school.

According to the GMAT test maker, studies show that GMAT takers aged 20-21 have the highest average scores of all those taking the test.

This is why at Kaplan, we recommend that undergraduate students sit for their grad exam while still in college because they'll find it easier since they are still in test-taking/study mode and some exam content or skills they may have learned as undergrads are still fresh in their minds

Scores on the GMAT, LSAT (for law school) and GRE are generally valid for 5 years, although that varies from program to program, Schaffer said.

Despite the struggles of her older students, our Network source made it clear they are set on succeeding.

"My older students brought a high level of focus, discipline, commitment, and motivation to achieving their goals that would serve them well as they moved forward," she said.

"One thing I have not noticed is any embarrassment or self-consciousness on the part of older students about their age, either when interacting with me or with younger students. It now seems generally accepted as normal that people return to school at all stages of life."

BONUS FACT: At Kaplan's Kaplan University unit, online enrollment of students age 55 and older has jumped 10-fold since 2007, from about 200 in 2007 to more than 2,200 today.

DOUBLE BONUS: Here's a sample GMAT problem solving question. Makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

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Are you an older or non-traditional student? How it's going being back in school or trying to return to school? What's working and what isn't?

Post below or contact me directly.

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School levies passing in a weak economy? An odd reason

Posted at 2:00 PM on December 30, 2009 by Paul Tosto (3 Comments)
Filed under: Education

I'm trying to answer some 2009 questions before 2009 ends. Here's one: Why did Minnesota school districts have such a relatively great year passing operating levies when the economy was so bad?

Fifty-nine districts asked taxpayers for funding during a year when unemployment jumped and housing prices fell. Forty-two districts -- 71 percent -- got one or more requests approved, according to the Minnesota School Boards Association.

On its surface, it doesn't make sense. The levy plans should have ended up casualties of the worst economy in decades. In 2008, only half the districts who went to taxpayers found success.

What happened in 2009?

"Many of the levy requests were renewals which meant that the property tax impact was minimal, or even no increase," said Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts.

Many districts also broke their requests into two questions -- with the first targeted to what they needed to get by the next year, the second to avoid cuts in following years, added Greg Abbott with the Minnesota School Boards Association. "Many of those districts passed at least the first question."

In some places, the district's survival depended on it. Voters last year effectively ended the McLeod West District by killing a levy request. "Heron Lake-Okabena and Ashby probably would have looked at consolidation or major cuts to programs if the levy hadn't passed," said Abbott.

"People know the state isn't funding schools.They also know two years from now, schools may face a state funding cut for the first time ever. So the only option is local support."

Beyond that, there's the interesting phenomenon that districts simply do better in odd-numbered calendar years.

Here's data from the Minnesota School Boards Association. "Total" means the number of Minnesota school districts seeking operating levy money and "% pass" is the percentage of those districts that got one or more approvals.

In an even-numbered year, said Abbott, election news is jammed with articles about national and statewide races. By the time November rolls around, the millionth story on the presidential election is written. People know more about Sarah Palin's hairstyle than whether or not a local school district is trying to pass a referendum."

That hurts school votes. When people enter the polls to vote for president, "they may not even know the school is having an election. And if you don't know what the referendum is for, what is the chance you'd vote to increase your taxes?"

Contrast that to odd-year elections when a school referendum may a town's only vote. "Without the state and national election clutter, people who vote are more informed on what the levy is for," Abbott says. "And usually, informed voters are more likely to vote Yes."

1/ 4 UPDATE: My MPR colleague Tom Weber put together a longer and more complete list of levy votes, including bond levy votes, following the November election. You can find it here.

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Youth jobs: no kidding around

Posted at 9:00 AM on December 18, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment, MinnEcon Indicator, Saving & spending

With so many breadwinners unemployed in this recession, it's easy to dismiss the struggles of teens and young adults who are trying to find work.

Laurie Stern of Chaska reminded me recently there's a deeper issue here. These days it's often not about teens earning "fun money" during the summer or over winter holidays. That cash is a vital piece of household income.

"Part-time jobs are a major portion of our children's savings for their college years," said Stern, part of MPR's Public Insight Network.

"Without the summer income, we will struggle to make sure they have money for books and miscellaneous spending during the year; needless to say, they will not be able to help with the tuition costs."

There's no doubt the the recession's been particularly rough on the economy's youngest workers.

"The entry level labor market is getting more crowded as experienced workers are hit by layoffs, older workers delay retirement and brand-new college graduates seek employment outside their fields of study," the state labor department wrote in its May teen summer jobs outlook report.

Federal stimulus money eased some of this year's problem. State officials said the money helped employ more than 6,000 Minnesota teens and young adults over the summer.

Still, the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis found the recession accelerating the trend of teens simply leaving the labor force.

When the Fed checked in on applicants for STEP-UP, a popular Minneapolis summer program, it found many teens having a difficult time getting a job. Demand for STEP-UP is expected to be huge next summer. This year, it received 3,200 applications for 1,300 jobs.

Stern said her son, a college sophomore has been working at a local grocery store since he turned 16.

During high school he struggled to keep up with school/activities because they wanted him to work more hours than he would have liked. Last summer when he came home after freshman year he was lucky to have a job that gave him some hours, but he didn't make as much as he would have liked over the summer.

They would not let him work recently over Thanksgiving break and we are still waiting to see if he will be able to work Christmas break.

They want to hire him back and need the extra help, but can't due to a hiring freeze. He has been unable to even find a work study job at school.

He's applied to many but all the positions have so many applying, sometimes close to 100 for 1 position, and he has yet to find a work study job. He is hopeful for second semester.

She also has a daughter who's a senior and looking for a job. "She has dropped off several applications at local fast food, tanning, theatre, etc. and has not yet received a call."

Stern said she and her husband have been seeking part time work to supplement the family income. "We have cut our expenses drastically and would not need very much to keep us in the black; however, that elusive part-time job is not to be found."

1/13 UPDATE: Stern dropped us a note to say her son got a work-study job at the University of Minnesota for spring semester.

"He will be working 12 hours a week in the map library; which is great because it is right in line with his geography major. He is also looking into internships for the summer but finding that most are unpaid, so he will need another job in addition to whatever internship he may find. The rest of us continue to look. "

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Do you know a teen or young adult who's found work or is trying to find work? Post below or contact me directly and tell me about the experience.

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Leaving Minnesota? More high school grads heading elsewhere for college

Posted at 1:51 PM on December 9, 2009 by Paul Tosto (3 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

Here's the good news from today's college attendance report by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education:

Minnesota's college participation rate hit an all-time high in 2008 with 70.2 percent of the state's 65,220 high school graduates enrolling immediately in a public or private college after high school.

Minnesota's college participation rate has gradually increased over time and has been among the highest in the nation. But 2008 was the first year 70 percent of the state's high school graduates enrolled immediately in college.

Here's the data that should make you worry about Minnesota's future workforce: Among those who did enroll in college after graduation, 28 percent enrolled out of state -- and that percentage is increasing.

Is it a crisis? No. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be paying attention. It's a point we've been arguing repeatedly the past few months.

As Minnesota's workforce ages and shrinks and high school and college graduates decrease, what happens when large numbers of high school graduates go to college elsewhere -- and possibly not return to the state? Who will do the economy building -- and tax paying -- to sustain Minnesota?

After jumping 15 percent this decade, the State Demographic Center projects only an 8.7 percent increase in Minnesota's labor force over the coming 25 years.

Yes, lots of people come to Minnesota and the quality of life and the workforce is high. But we've been living on that for decades and there's increasing worry that Minnesota just can't rely on that any more.

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Leaving Minnesota? Exporting the best and brightest

Posted at 6:07 PM on November 16, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

Would you be concerned if 67,000-plus of Minnesota's best and brightest graduated from high school and left the state? I think I am.

That's the estimate by the Minnesota Private College Council of students who graduated from high school and enrolled in an out-of-state college from 2003 to 2008.

The council's newest research, made available today, builds on the group's ongoing concerns that Minnesota is a net exporter of college talent and that will hurt the state's economy long-term. Yes, students from outside the state come here. But on average, Minnesota's been a net exporter of more than 5,000 students a year the past six years.

The map below, produced by the council, shows the net migration. Most of it's concentrated in neighboring states.

It'd be easy to look at the data and conclude there's no issue at all. Lots of people come to Minnesota, the quality of life and the workforce is high. And of course, the Minnesota Private College Council would want kids to stay in the state.

So what's the worry? As Minnesota's workforce population ages and shrinks and high school and college graduates decrease, what happens when large numbers of high school graduates go to college elsewhere -- and possibly not return to the state? Who will do the economy building -- and tax paying -- to sustain Minnesota?

We don't really know the answer but we need to. In Ohio, they're wondering why home grown talent is fleeing the state.

As I've noted in a prior post, the export data require a deeper look. If a Woodbury High kid graduates and goes to University of Wisconsin River Falls, he's gone out of state. But it doesn't necessarily mean he won't stay in Minnesota and contribute to the economy.

Still, people like state demographer Tom Gillaspy are clearly worried about the state economy given the aging workforce. If those students leave Minnesota after high school and don't come back, who'll keep the economy rolling?

Click here to see our prior posts on Leaving Minnesota?

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Warren Buffett, railroads and retraining

Posted at 12:00 PM on November 10, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

News that investor Warren Buffett will buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe got me thinking about employment in an industry that many didn't think had a future.

After a half century of decline, demand for railroad workers has been rising in this decade. For the past five years, Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount has been training people to be railroad conductors with good success placing them in jobs. It's one of only a few public school railroad programs in the country.

Conductors work the rail yards. Duties include moving and coupling rail cars. It's a tough, demanding job with lots of irregular hours and pressures that can be hard on families.

But it pays well -- entry level starts at about $42,000 and can a conductor can earn upward of $70,000 after three years. There are opportunities to work your way up to engineer and a six-figure salary.

We checked in with Larry Raddatz, who oversees the conductor's program at Dakota County Tech. Demand for graduates took a hit in the recession, he says, but is starting to recover.

For three years, there were more jobs than we had graduates and classes were full. I received calls from RRs all over the country looking for conductors...A manager from a short-line in Chicago visited one of the first classes and offered to take any three of them back with him on the plane that day.

And then the recession hit. Like most industries, the railroads suffered in 2009. They did no hiring until last month. Enrollment (in the DCTC program) was down slightly in 2009 because I was informing students that the RRs were not hiring.

It is slowly starting to pick up again. The Canadian Pacific recently interviewed for 12 conductors in the St. Paul service area. The UP (Union Pacific) recruiter indicated that they will have hiring sessions in early 2010.

There has been a bit more interest lately. Perhaps it is attributable to Mr. Buffett.

In its first years, the program drew mostly men in their 30s and older trying to change industries or simply find work. It was a magnet early on for striking Northwest Airlines mechanics who had skills and were comfortable working around big, rolling vehicles.

The students have become more diverse in age, gender and ethnicity, Raddatz says.

A young woman enrolling in the January class, he adds, had checked into the program for someone else but was intrigued by the job. "She was tired of being on the waiting list for the nursing program so she applied herself."

Long-term, we are looking at what we can do to respond to industry needs for commuter and high-speed rail. In addition to conductors, DCTC is well positioned to provide skilled employees to the RRs (welding, diesel, electrical, etc.).

It can be a difficult way to make a living. But if Warren Buffett is high enough on railroads to spend $44 billion, the odds are good it'll mean growth in the business and demand for workers willing to take on the challenges and risks.

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Click here to learn more about the Dakota County Technical College railroad conductor program.

If you've been through the program and have some thoughts about it or your career in railroads, contact me directly and I'll share your thoughts with MinnEcon readers.

Click on the map icons below to read what Minnesotans in MPR's Public Insight Network have been telling us about the jobs climate around them.

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Education, training and the road back to work at 55

Posted at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2009 by Paul Tosto (2 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

Single mom. dislocated worker, grandmother, "nontraditional college student."

That was Deb Mason's shorthand on her life as she told us about her journey from laid off auto dealership employee to soon-to-be college graduate. It's been a hard road -- one that many 50-and-older workers in Minnesota know too well in this recession.

A source in MPR's Public Insight Network from West St. Paul, Mason pushed herself to regroup and retrain. We wanted to tell her story because it captures so many things we're seeing in this recession among people 50 and older.

Mason, 55, says she was laid off October 21 last year after 15 years in auto dealerships. She wasn't surprised given the industry's problems. She asked her bosses if they thought the layoff would last long. "The response I got was, 'If I were you I would start looking for a new job, things don't look good for coming back soon... if ever.'"

I immediately came home applied online for unemployment and signed up for the next dislocated worker meeting in Dakota county. The room was packed.

Three weeks after I was laid off I was in a car accident and my car was totaled. Unfortunately I had canceled my full coverage insurance two days before in an effort to cut down expenses. So after paying full coverage for 30 years I now needed it and did not have it. I found that a little ironic.

My 401K had shrunk to barely anything so I cashed it in and bought a different car ( also added full coverage back on) I took some computer Excel classes to update my skills. Applied for numerous jobs, redid resume several times, emailed it to numerous places even ones I did not qualify for.

In a year I have only had three interviews, but no job as I did not have the degree they wanted. Experience did me no good as once I said automobile... they sort of stepped back.

Mason says she'd always wanted a degree but earlier in life could never could go. Suddenly, she found the things she did well wouldn't deliver the next job.

"I can title a vehicle in any state and nearly every country, I can keep inventory of over 1000 vehicles, balance schedules and process loans but I could not land a job close to what I was making."

Out of work, she enrolled in the ASAP program at Inver Hills Community College. It's focused on adults hoping to earn a two-year degree at an accelerated pace.

School's gone well. She made the dean's list and became involved in Inver Hills' student life. She expects to graduate by summer's end and hopes to go into "social work similar to the dislocated worker program as it has been such a good thing for me and others."

Mason says she thinks there are lots of people in the same boat. We've seen it, too.

Many older workers have lost jobs and seen retirement plans torpedoed. Others are dealing with setbacks they never faced when they were younger. Nationally, more than 2 million people aged 55 and older were out of work in June, the biggest number since the feds began collecting data in 1949, according to the AARP.

School has been one answer. We've seen jumps in older students in Minnesota. A recent AARP survey found one in six people over 50 planning to return to school with nearly half returning to sharpen job skills.

Finding a job remains the ultimate goal for Mason in this journey. But she says:

I have decided to look at unemployment as a step toward the future. I got tired of being depressed. I enjoy the time with the grandkids and keep very busy between jobs hunting, school and family. I am glad the (federal unemployment benefits extension) bill passed as my extension was due to run out by Feb. The job market maybe will be better by then.

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Dwindling jobs + high unemployment = worst job market in 9 years

Posted at 1:42 PM on August 28, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

A post from my colleague Mike Caputo:

We told you last week about the .3 percent decrease in Minnesota's unemployment numbers. That's the good news.

But check this out: The number of job vacancies decreased by 40 percent from the second quarter of 2008 to 2009. That means there were 7.7 unemployed people for each vacancy statewide, compared to 2.9 people per job opening the year before. Here's how the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development characterizes the result:

"...it indicates that the labor market is less favorable for job seekers than during any other period throughout the history of the job vacancy series dating back to fourth quarter 2000."

That helps explain the experience of people like Eliot Axelrod of Bloomington, a source in our Public Insight Network who says he's been through 200 job interviews since being laid off late last year.

Some of the jobless are exploring other options.

Sarah Waline of St. Cloud decided to go back to school for retraining. The 31-year-old mother (and Network source) was laid off in February. She plans to take technical courses under the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

It's apparently a big crowd. Schools in Albert Lea and St. Cloud are experiencing record enrollment, while enrollment numbers at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities will surely beat the 3 percent increase MnSCU schools saw in 2008-09, says Melinda Voss, spokesperson for MnSCU.

"When the economy goes down, enrollment goes up," says Voss.

(And don't forget, Gov. Tim Pawlenty reduced expected funding for colleges and universities by $100 million. So class sizes will be larger, says Voss, and at schools that don't limit enrollment, some students may have to wait to get into a desired program. Students who attend universities with more strict admissions policies could be turned away, but Voss had no definitive numbers.)

Then there are those who have decided to stop applying for work and, instead, create their own. Paul Wenzel of Minneapolis lost his job in the spring and said he's gotten enough freelance leads to keep going.

"I have been a full-time web developer at a number of companies, moonlighting on evenings and weekends. I already had my own LLC arranged beforehand, I was already prepared to keep my family afloat after the layoff. I have been able to provide services to local companies that need knowledgeable developers who can walk in and get things done."

Of course, the state's jobless numbers don't count the Wenzels and Walines of the world, only people who are actively seeking jobs.

If you've lost work, what's your plan of attack? Tell Minnesota Public Radio news.

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At one community college, a jump in older students

Posted at 12:40 PM on October 22, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

We asked aloud in September if people might be better off without college in this recession. Clearly, we were way off.

Headcounts in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system are at a record high. At one of those schools, Normandale Community College in Bloomington, the biggest percentage growth is among Minnesotans in their 30s and 40s.

Kate Metzger, Normandale's communications officer and a source in MPR's Public Insight Network, helped us find fall 2009 enrollment data by age and compare it to the past few years.

Traditional students -- ages 24 and younger -- still make up most of Normandale's total enrollment. But a look at the bar graph shows the biggest percentage gains during the recession coming from people who are likely working adults.

We've all suspected the rotten economy was behind the overall college enrollment growth. If your job's eliminated, you need to retrain. Or maybe your spouse lost a job and you need to find a way back into the workforce.

"Anecdotally we know that many of our adult students are returning for retraining and further education due to job layoffs or other changes caused by the economic conditions," says Rick Smith, Normandale's enrollment dean.

Smith says Normandale, one of MnSCU's largest two-year schools, doesn't see older students coalescing around specific majors.

Paula Fleming's seen the changes from a different vantage point. She's a teacher / tutor for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions in St. Paul. She tells us:

A number of students I have taught or tutored for Kaplan in the last six months have been older students. Several had been laid off from their jobs (school counselor, pharmaceutical rep, to name two) and were using the forced break in their careers to take stock and go back to school to start new careers.

While Fleming's seen many students frustrated at having to "reacquire skills that did not seem very relevant to their academic or career paths in order to gain access to further education," she notes that her older and younger students seem to mesh well.

There's no "embarrassment or self-consciousness on the part of older students about their age, either when interacting with me or with younger students," says Fleming, another Network source. "It now seems generally accepted as normal that people return to school at all stages of life."

Keep this conversation going. Are you an older student who's returned to school to retrain or do you know someone who's gone back? Are you a school administrator? Tell us what you see. Post in the comment area below or contact me directly.

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What's the economy like around you these days? Check the map below to see what Minnesotans in our network are telling us about the jobs climate around them. Then share your own story.

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Helping kids find their footing after college

Posted at 8:00 AM on October 21, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

What's it like to be just out of college, trying to find your way in this recession? How about being the parent of that new grad, hoping your child succeeds? Celia Gust and her daughter, Tayler Anderson, offered us a look.

Celia's part of MPR's Public Insight Network. She told us of Tayler's recent graduation and ongoing job search in this lousy economy.

Here's an edited email exchange with Celia, 50, and Tayler, 23. I moved and shortened passages to make it easier to read but I think stayed true to the basic questions: What's it like for new college grads? How do you help your young adult children as they try to find their way in this recession?

Tayler: People who graduated with their degrees in years past can't possibly understand how hard it is.

It's not merely competitive, there are simply too few opportunities and those chances that do arise go to people we couldn't possibly compete with. Bottom line is we're all trying to stay optimistic that things will turn around and we'll all finally get the opportunity to compete in the world that we're all trying so hard to succeed in.

In a program where in previous years every student was placed in a job before graduation, we now find ourselves moving back home and working the same types of jobs we were before we even attended college. 4 months out and none of the extremely talented people I graduated with in my program has a "real" job.

(Tayler graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor's in graphic design and a minor in art history.)

Celia: Tayler has been doing cold calls on all graphic design firms in Portland and Vancouver, she has photography for sale in a local business, she is doing some freelance graphic design work and to pay the bills she now has a part time job at Bath and Body Works.

I keep telling her to not get discouraged, that it may take 6 months or even a year, but she WILL get into her field. My contribution to this is to keep encouraging her...6 months or a year is really not a very long time in the greater scheme of things.

Tayler: I even consider myself lucky to have a job at all, real or not. When you're little you have these delusions a grandeur that after you go to college you get the privilege of graduating and moving up into the world of your choosing. Into the bottom rungs, of course, but still a step in the right direction.

Instead I now find myself working retail, while people who have 5+ years of experience are taking the jobs intended for recent grads.

Celia: She had at least one job all the time and sometimes two jobs (during college). She took a year off school to establish her residency in Washington State (where she went to school). Basically, she did what she needed to do to get herself through college with small enough loans to be practical to pay off once she was in the job market.

Children learn the most from watching how their parents live their own lives. If you want responsible kids, live responsibly...The thing about children is that they are very smart and they can sniff out hypocrisy faster than anything.

The wild card here, that I can't judge the impact of, is that my kids know very well that the worst can happen and that although they are not invincible they are incredibly strong. This is because their father, my first husband, died of brain cancer when they were 15 and 12 years old...Through it all, we just tried to maintain our humanity, honor, integrity, compassion and sense of humor.

We are all the sum of the lives we have led (maybe this is the most important lesson of all).

Tayler: Bottom line is we (new graduates) are all trying to stay optimistic that things will turn around and we'll all finally get the opportunity to compete in the world that we're all trying so hard to succeed in

(Tayler signed off her last email aka. desperate recent grad)

APRIL 2010 UPDATE: Tayler landed a paid internship. Check out our update on her progress.

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Trying to retrain for a post-recession world

Posted at 4:50 PM on October 7, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

In the old economy, last year, Tom Koller was a machinist / precision grinder. Then came a layoff. He realized his old job wasn't coming back. Now, he's one of thousands of jobless Minnesotans trying to retrain for a life beyond the recession.

We've written a lot at MinnEcon and MPR about being unemployed and the struggles that follow. We haven't done a lot on what people are trying to do to change jobs.

Koller, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network from Eden Prairie, agreed to let us follow him in his quest. He's in the state's Dislocated Worker Program, hoping to retrain for a future as a computer network administrator. His unemployment benefits are set to run out in January. He tells us:

I was a PC tech (several years ago). The industry pretty much died. I did some driving and machinist work. The machine I was taught is not used now. I was laid off for lack of work.

I now need a current certification to get a job in a significantly changed computer industry.

The (Dislocated Worker) program is an effort in progress for me. I am turning 50. I am looking for help from them to get schooling to re-qualify myself for computer work.

Given his past experience in computer hardware repair, Koller believes he can meet a current demand for software and hardware support.

But what employers see is that I have not worked in the field for six years and have no recent certifications.

My goal is to become a Sun Certified System Administrator. Entry level salaries are between $40k to $60k. This can be done in as little as one month. Though most options take three months.

We asked him what it's like at the workforce centers. "The biggest thing I see is uncertainty," he adds.

It seems to go beyond the insecurity of not working. On the good side, I have seen quite a few ads for home improvement and repair people...In general, jobs that keep the basic things working are doing well.

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Are you trying to retrain in this recession or do you work with people trying to retrain? Drop me a line or post below and tell me your experience.

Also, check out the map to read what people in our Network have told us about the job climate around them. Then share your story.

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More college aid for students of unemployed parents?

Posted at 1:50 PM on March 26, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

So you've been saving for years for your kid's education. Then the economy tanks and suddenly the college dough you'd put in a stock fund is worth half what you planned. You try to tap your home equity line of credit but find you don't have that much equity anymore. Then you lose your job.

You may have been fine last fall when your child applied to all those schools. Now it's college acceptance season and things aren't fine anymore. What do you do?

Tell the college.

One of our Public Insight Network members told us this week that one of the schools his son applied to upped the financial aid package after hearing that dad lost his job.

Paul Landskroener, a lawyer, was laid off in December. He told us:

Colleges were very eager last fall to write to say that we shouldn't worry about the dismal financial news, that they were committed to meeting financial need via financial aid.

By and large, this has proven true. Only one college (Earlham), however, has increased its financial aid offer after learning of our unemployment. This now makes Earlham the most likely place he will go."

Students can appeal to financial aid offices with changes in family income (job change, loss of of job, etc), additional dependents, extraordinary medical expenses, etc.

Families submit documentation via the college's process and the schools evaluate to determine if additional aid can be awarded. Given that a lot of the country's job loss was after January 1 -- colleges are expecting more appeals.

Landskorener says his family also hopes to use the enhanced college tax credit in the federal stimulus package.

Is the economy changing how colleges court new students or the choices those students and families must make? Drop us a line or keep the conversation going below.

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Leaving Minnesota? A deeper look

Posted at 1:34 PM on October 6, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

New college grad Allison Troyer told us recently about leaving Minnesota after she couldn't find find work here. We asked her for some detail. For people concerned about the state's future workforce, her story's worth exploring.

Keeping smart, young workers like Troyer in-state is crucial to Minnesota's long-term health. The recession is exposing a long-term weakness -- an aging state labor force that won't grow enough to meet the economy's needs.

The good news is Troyer, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network now working in California, says she intends to return to Minnesota eventually, maybe after law school. It's what she encountered the past few months that's worrisome. She tells us:

I think that the current job market in Minnesota is difficult for anyone looking for work, but especially so for recent graduates.

Even for people that have some experience, a good resume and a great academic background, there is little hope unless you have particular skills that perfectly match the needs of the employer.

A bachelor's degree felt as though it was a dime a dozen and any internships in college or indicators of potential seemed nearly worthless.

It is impossible to compete with individuals that have been in the workforce for even one year that will work for the same amount as a recent grad.

Troyer, 23, is from Coon Rapids. She graduated in December from the University of Minnesota with a journalism degree.

I thought that I wouldn't necessarily have an extremely difficult job search. I had several decent internships while in college...I knew my job search would be difficult and, starting around the holidays, there isn't much activity in terms of hiring, but as the months wore on I found less and less.

I first applied to any communications or public relations position because that was my specialty. Within two months I began applying to any position that I thought I could loosely qualify for including secretarial positions and a barista position, which I took to pay the bills.

Around May it occurred to me that my student loans bill would arrive in July and I needed to start thinking about looking elsewhere.

While searching for government jobs in Minnesota, I decided to look at openings in California and found a paralegal specialist position with the IRS... I applied to it, immediately forgot about it and about a month later had a phone interview.

With that I was offered the job and accepted as soon as I learned more about the position, the location and the pay (which far surpassed any number of jobs that I applied for in MN).

It was pretty hard to leave Minnesota. I came to the realization that the state wasn't going to offer that to me at this point.

After jumping 15 percent this decade, Minnesota's labor force is projected to grow only 8.7 percent over the coming 25 years, while aging significantly. Also, Minnesota is a net exporter of college-bound, new high school graduates

That's not a good mix for a state that is not the draw people think it is. Who will grow the economy? Who will help pay for Baby Boomer retirements, public education and quality of life?

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Got a different perspective to share or think I'm out of line? Drop me a line or post below. Also, check out the map to read what people in our Network have told us about the job climate around them. Then share your story.

Voluntary Poverty: The class

Posted at 3:58 PM on October 5, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

James Park, 68, says he stopped working at age 27 and has lived cheaply ever since. Really cheaply. He says he hasn't owed a car since 1968 and spent only $7,907 to live in 2007 and $6,598 in 2008.

I can't verify those numbers and I'm in the process of asking him more questions. But since this blog is largely about Minnesotans sharing their economy stories, I wanted to know more about someone who advocates life at the low end of consumption.

It's not an idle thought in this economy. MPR a few weeks ago hosted a discussion with "No Impact Man" Colin Beavan, a guy who tried to live a year in New York City with zero environmental impact. Voluntarily or not, most of us are doing with less or without in this recession.

Park, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network, teaches a free class on "voluntary poverty" through the Twin Cities Experimental College. Despite the catchy name, he says it's more about simplifying (the course title used to be about surviving on Social Security income, his revenue source). He writes:

The EXCO class on voluntary poverty grew out of my own life-style choices: Since I have been able to live well on almost no money, I think others can learn from some of my methods. The audience for this class is basically the people in their 20s and 30s.

People who have attended this kind of seminar in the past have shared some interesting ideas for how to earn income and how to save money on everything.

The seminar does not have a specific agenda. People just share whatever comes to mind from their own experiences.

Park says he' no expert on all aspects of living cheaply. "But I think that we can all share some useful tips for earning money and spending it more wisely." Here's his essay on using only $20-$25 worth of electricity a month.

Saving and spending have been major topics on this blog. I've speculated that in this recession we're seeing permanent shifts toward saving and away from spending. We'll see. There was a recent boost in consumer spending, though much of that was due to the the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program.

Says Park:

Whether people will return to their old patterns of spending once their income returns to previous levels is hard to predict.

I think there might be some people who are ready to down-size permanently. And others will decide never to join the main economy.

Park isn't quite sure when the next "Voluntary Poverty" class will start. That will happen when enough people sign up. An existential philosopher, he adds that his most popular classes are on "authenticity and love."

Regarding the "poverty" class, he says,

The next time it is offered, it will probably be on a week-day afternoon. This is a good time for people who have no jobs to go to.

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Are you trying to live dramatically differently in this economy? Are you reversing your spending and saving? Got any tips? Drop me a line or post below or click here.

Check out the map below to read what others in our network are saying about spending and saving, then share your own story.

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Leaving Minnesota? The high school edition

Posted at 5:39 PM on October 2, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment

After posting Leaving Minnesota? this afternoon, the Minnesota Private College Council sent me its new research showing another worry: our state is also a net exporter of college-bound high school students.

Here's the report. I'd love to hear from folks on this. What does it mean? What kinds of questions should I ask? Drop me a line or post below. I'm especially interested if you're a student or family member of a student who's recently left Minnesota for college elsewhere.

I've always had great respect for the quality of the council's research. Its been a consistent voice over the years warning about gaps in Minnesota's future workforce needs and that the fastest growing student populations here are the least prepared for that future.

Here's the council's trend data:

That includes private non-profit, private for-profit and public schools

The data require a deeper look. If a Woodbury High kid graduates and goes to University of Wisconsin River Falls, he's gone out of state. But it doesn't necessarily mean he won't stay in Minnesota and contribute to the economy.

Still, the council point is worth exploring:

As Minnesota's workforce population ages and shrinks and high school and college graduates decrease, it is an added concern when large numbers of high school graduates go to college elsewhere -- and possibly not return to the state.

Thoughts?

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College in Canada -- a bargain in this economy?

Posted at 10:11 PM on April 13, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

We started asking people last week to tell us a story about the economy around them, just as a new way to look at and report on the economy.

We're getting some pretty interesting stories already and we'll be sharing them daily here. First up, Dave Schaenzer from Minneapolis sent us a story headlined: "Canada College Cost 30% discount."

As someone with five years to go before sending a kid to college (and wishing I had eight years), I was instantly interested. Schaenzer wrote:

My daughter has been accepted into college in Canada for next year. The exchange rate is about $1.25 Canadian for each $1 US. This means college cost for tuition and housing is 25% cheaper. She was offered $2.5K scholarship. So we expect to save about $5K by going to Canada instead of UW Madison or the UM Twin Cities.

I'm not sure I've seen that reported anywhere. But it turns out that the government of Canada is making it easy to explore this option. If anyone has a similar story or is contemplating send their kids to college in Canada, please tell us. I'm hoping Schaenzer will tell us a little more about the decision.

Tell us how you're doing. What's the economy like in their part of Minnesota. Click here and tell us. The plan is to build a portrait of Minnesota's economy based on the stories of (I hope) thousands of other Minnesotans. We plan to take those insights and map them here at MinnEcon.

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More on College in Canada savings

Posted at 9:50 PM on April 21, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

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Putting off education to pay the bills

Posted at 9:53 PM on May 6, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

We've seen college enrollment rise in Minnesota during the recession and that's good. It likely means people who've seen their jobs cut are trying to retrain.

But the enrollment bump doesn't mean it's cheap to go to school in Minnesota.

Despite attempts by some schools to ease the cost burden in tough times, tuition and fees at community colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin are among the highest of any state in the nation. Tuition hikes at Minnesota public colleges are running a lot faster than income growth in this decade.

I was reminded of this by a recent note from Laura Janvrin, a source in our Public Insight Network from Stewartville, Minn., a small town south of Rochester.

Janvrin, in her mid-20's, is a cashier at a local thrift store in Stewartville. She described her current outlook as worrisome and told us she couldn't predict how the next month would turn out for her financially.

My money goes toward a credit card bill and a vet bill...finances may improve, but there are too many things that may suck the money right back out of our hands...

My extra money generally goes toward saving up for grad school -- something I have already had to put on hold three separate occasions because of the economic situation.

There's evidence nationally many young people are in similar straits. A recent survey found young adults struggling with debt were putting off school, putting off starting families and adding more debt.

One in five said they or someone close to them had left college or delayed college because of their economic situation. That jumped to 35 percent among those who described their economic situation as poor.

The Minnesota Office of Higher Education recently published some tips on what to do if you're a college student who's struggling or whose family is struggling in this economy.

It's worth checking in with your college financial aid office to see if they'll provide more aid in circumstances where a family member has lost a job. That won't help Janvrin, who like others may have to wait until the economy recovers.

Know someone who's trying to plan for college or stay in college in this economy? Drop a line and share a story.

Below are some recent responses from our audience on money issues. Send us a story and we'll add it to the map.

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Community college finds high demand for free classes for jobless

Posted at 9:51 PM on May 6, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Twin Cities metro

My post earlier today on putting off education to pay the bills got me thinking about an experiment Normandale Community College in Bloomington tried this term -- free tuition in selected classes for people who were unemployed.

The school's offer made a splash late last year along with Anoka-Ramsey Community College's plan to provide classes at half price for those who qualified for unemployment.

With the semester winding down, I checked with Normandale to see how it went.

The school ended up with a lot more demand than expected for the free classes -- 269 students signed up. Officials had expected fewer than 100.

It didn't cost Normandale because the classes offered were ones that typically wouldn't have been filled anyway. Also, students who took the free classes also took 80 classes at Normandale where tuition was required, a spokeswoman said.

Are free or discounted class for the jobless a trend?

It's been happening in communities around the country this spring. A Pennsylvania senator recently unveiled a plan where the federal government would reimburse community colleges that offer free tuition to workers who have lost their jobs.

Locally, it's not clear how long the free/discounted classes will continue.

Anoka-Ramsey plans to continue its half-price offer through the summer term and says more than 200 people took its offer this semester.

Normandale won't offer the free classes in the summer because they're expected to be full. A decision about continuing the offer in the fall could come later this month.

What do you think of the idea? With unemployment at a 25 year high in Minnesota, should community colleges offer free classes to jobless people?Tell us.

Also, check out the map below for recent stories from our audience about the job climate in Minnesota, then share your story.

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Is college worth the money?

Posted at 12:49 AM on June 1, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Saving & spending

Is higher education the next financial bubble ready to burst?

Tuition and fees at community colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin are among the highest of any state in the nation. And tuition hikes at Minnesota public colleges are running a lot faster than income growth in this decade.

There are lots of different explanations for this. But let's not go there right now. The reality is that despite attempts by some schools to ease the cost burden in tough times, schools are boosting tuition at a clip faster than family incomes are rising.

At some point something's gotta give.

My MPR News colleague Bob Collins today posted a link to a compelling opinion piece that noted: "Consumers who have questioned whether it is worth spending $1,000 a square foot for a home are now asking whether it is worth spending $1,000 a week to send their kids to college."

Minnesota's supply of high school graduates, growing since the early 1990s, is expected to peak this month and then decline through 2015. So at the same time the region's colleges face a shrinking supply of freshmen, they will be adding to a tuition burden that's among the highest in the country, during the deepest recession in more than 25 years.

That doesn't sound sustainable.

There's no doubt the financial payoff of a college degree remains strong. But at what point to Americans start seriously looking for alternatives to the traditional U.S. college education?

How about Canada, where the exchange rate is favorable and the government is making it easy these days to explore college options?

So is college worth the money? Do you see the time coming when the traditional Minnesota college education won't be worth its cost? What alternatives are out there? I'd love to hear from folks.

If you know someone who's trying to plan for college or stay in college in this economy, drop a line and share a story.

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The economic argument for closing MN's achievement gap

Posted at 4:14 PM on July 15, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education

The people who you will increasingly depend upon in your old age to pay taxes, keep your Social Security solvent, build Minnesota's economy and maintain its quality of life are the least prepared to take on that future.

That's why you should pay attention to the latest data showing high, persistent gaps between whites and black and Latino students in Minnesota. No matter where you are in Minnesota, you have a lot riding on them.

My colleague Tom Weber pulled the report data together nicely in a news story today. And MPR's Eliza Hartley is looking for you to share some thoughts on MinnEcon.

Here's my contribution: An economic argument for closing the gap:

Minnesota's aging. State demographer Tom Gillaspy recently estimated that over the next 10 years, nearly 700,000 Minnesota Baby Boomers (currently age 52 to 63, or 1 out of every 8 Minnesotans) will "seriously contemplate retirement."

>That's a lot of productive people. Who will replace them?

A shrinking, more diverse high school class. High school graduates peaked last month and we are now on the slide in Minnesota. Much of that will come from a big drop in white graduates as students of color rise to about 20 percent of the graduating class statewide.

The overall demand for workers in Minnesota will be greater than the supply in coming years. Black and Latino students are the fastest growing populations in Minnesota high schools.

>How many will be ready to succeed in college and take on the job of building Minnesota's economy, paying taxes and keeping our Social Security checks from bouncing?

5 percent. Less than five percent of students of color and low-income kids earn a bachelor's degree from a Minnesota college within 10 years of their freshman year in high school, according to research by the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership and Minnesota Private College Council (published by the Citizens League).

The high school students who are college bound are woefully unprepared for college work.

At the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, less than half the students of color entering in 2001 had graduated by 2007 (check .pdf page 19)

I know the next question.

So how would you close the gap?

I covered K12 and higher education for 10 years in the Twin Cities. A couple years ago I wrote down four things that work based on the stuff I've read and the people I talked to over the years.

I'll roll that out in the next post.

Thoughts? Post below or use this form to tell us what you're seeing at your local school.

Four ideas to close the achievement gap

Posted at 4:07 PM on July 17, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education

I rolled out an economic argument for closing the achievement gap earlier this week. Here's a look at how to close it.

These are ideas to help kids pulled together from my 10 years writing and editing K12 and higher education in the Twin Cities for the Pioneer Press.

I understand the "close the gap" discussion almost always breaks down into debates/diatribes about unions, budget cuts, uncaring politicians or broken family structures. But try this list.

Reach them early. Preschool and full-day kindergarten helps kids who would otherwise start school behind. Research shows this. People in business suits agree with this.

Minneapolis Fed economist Art Rolnick has been one of the key voices on this, coming at it with data and a convincing economic argument.

"Investment" is a word that get thrown around way to easily, but it works here.

Keep them in one school. Kids need stability. When they don't have to move from school to school they do better. When life forces them to switch schools, they do worse.

A decade ago, the Kids Mobility Project found Minneapolis children who did not move during the year scored twice as high on reading tests compared to kids who switched schools three or more times.

Kids' stability is a good thing for teachers, too. Imagine being a teacher who gets a kid who's behind in September, works with him through the fall to get him nearly caught up, only to see that kid not come back in January, replaced by another kid who's way behind.

Get them taking tougher courses. We talk a lot about kids getting into college. We don't talk a lot about whether they succeed there or fail.

Less than half the students of color who enter the University of Minnesota Twin Cities graduate within six years. That's likely the best of any Minnesota public college.

High school course work matters. Teens who take rigorous college-prep coursework in high school are far more likely to earn a degree than kids who don't.

U.S. Department of Education research shows that when students complete a math course in high school higher than Algebra II they more than double the odds that they will earn a bachelor's degree in college.

That's about as close to a magic bullet as you get in education.

The problem: local and national data show black and Latino students far less likely than white or Asian students to finish coursework in high school beyond than the basics. Too often that doesn't show up until kids take the ACT.

Teens who thought they were ready for college work discover too late they are not ready.

Minnesota's planning to require Algebra I in eighth grade as one means to fix this. I worry about that. Ordering Algebra I is not the same as making sure kids are ready to succeed in Algebra I in eighth grade.

Get them a great principal. St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff Elementary School is the one genuine school turnaround I've seen in the Twin Cities.

Despite millions poured in from the city, state and foundations, it was a basket case until the district overhauled staff and named Von Sheppard as principal.

It was risky. Sheppard had never been a principal before. But he came in, got student discipline under control, built bridges to families and children and created a climate in the building that let teachers teach and kids learn.

Test scores jumped and stayed relatively high even after Sheppard move on.

Those "beat the odds" schools you read about nationally are typically led by a principal who can build that kind of culture. When the adults in a school are working in harmony, kids succeed. When the adults are in chaos, success is unlikely.

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Don't like my list?

Post below at tell me where I'm wrong. Or use this form to tell us what you're seeing at your local school.

What's college good for these days?

Posted at 3:13 PM on August 12, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education

Is college worth it? My MPR colleague Mike Caputo's been talking to Minnesotans in our Public Insight Network this week about the value of higher learning in this recession. Here's his report:

Remember those college years when your uncle told you to dream big and learn about life while in school? What would he say in 2009, when college leaves you with a big debt and diminished job prospects?

Let's face it, this recession has put a thumb on the scales we use to assess college; the one with "go to train your mind" on one side and "go to get a job" on the other. Practicality is winning the day.

Take David Greenley of Minneapolis. The 30-year-old Army vet once advocated getting a college degree to expand the mind - explore the future. But not anymore.

Greenley, a laid-off worker in the midst of getting an associates degree, says he wants a vocational education because "that ... will give me a chance to make it during the recession."

Others are recalculating their reasons to get a degree because College costs are soaring, college loans are more burdensome and jobs for graduates aren't as plentiful. Minnesotans especially notice the financial weight because they borrow more for a degree.

More than two-thirds of MN seniors came out of a public college with student loans - and that debt averaged nearly $23,000, according to a study by the state's Office of Higher Education. That's 11 percent more in cumulative dollars than those who graduated from public schools in comparable states. The debt spread is even greater - 19 percent - when you look at private college debt.

Even the cost of attending community college, like Greenley is doing, is higher in this state than most others. Minnesota has one of the most expensive two-year systems in the country.

The cost of college - and what it pays for - has left Heather Ratz sounding bitter. The Winona woman graduated with a graphic design degree from Winona State but in a few years that her education emphasized theory at the expense of technique.

She went for a master's degree and also thought the courses lacked real world application. She's taken a job outside her dream field to pay off the "loans upon loans" she's collected. It's shaken her belief in lifelong learning.

Those who went to college with idealism have found the financial burden to be almost a rebuke of the decision. Amy Salmey of Inver Grove Heights says the nearly $400 a month student loan payment she makes for her psychology/social work degrees as put a chill in her zeal for the work.

And yet, while the recession may have skewed the argument about the meaning of college, still some believe in college's loftier aims.

Greg Boone is a Minnesotan who entered Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter with the idea of training for a career. He was moved away from that view during his courses in education. Now he teaches English in South Korea and says that he's convinced that college's best reason for being is to train people for a life of learning and to find a true calling.

"Colleges like Gustavus prepare students to approach the world with an open and enlightened mind. All of these schools think that the liberal arts approach is the best approach because it uniquely prepares students for a future of life-long learning, which is infinitely more valuable for some employers than anything else."

What calculus are you making as you decide on college for yourself or your child? How do graduates see their college experience six months or sixteen years since getting that sheepskin? Tell us your story here.

BONUS INFO: MPR's Midmorning program on Thursday examined the links between college and financial success. Check it out.

Looking for a job? Better off without college?

Posted at 2:55 PM on September 1, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education

If your goal right now is a job in Minnesota, you are better off without a college degree.

That's my conclusion after coming across this nugget from the state labor department's most recent job vacancy survey:

44 percent of vacancies required some level of post-secondary education or training beyond a high school diploma. This means that the majority of vacancies required no education beyond a high school diploma or equivalent. (emphasis mine)

There's no doubt that people with college degrees can earn significantly more over a lifetime than those whose education stops at high school.

But I would have expected education to pay a huge premium in such a deep recession. Displaced Minnesotans have been heading for college in big numbers hoping to retrain.

Instead, we find the majority of job openings in Minnesota don't require more than a high school diploma. What do we make of that?

We've weighed the is-college-worth-it issue in a few posts this summer ("What's college good for these days" and "Is college worth the money?"). It was the topic of USA Today's cover story a couple days ago.

I'm trying to get more data and perspective on this from folks at the state who collect and analyze data. I'll post what I get.

You can help by telling us what you're seeing in Minnesota's job market these days. And check out the map below for what sources in our Public Insight Network are telling us about Minnesota's job climate.

UPDATE: Check out this post for updated data.

UPDATE: Better off without college?

Posted at 9:30 PM on September 1, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education

Given that most current Minnesota job vacancies require only a high school diploma, we asked this morning if job seekers in Minnesota were better off without a college degree.

Well, don't leave school just yet.

Trend data we got this afternoon from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development show the percentage of job vacancies requiring at least a two year college degree rising steadily over the decade.

It still surprises me that more than half the vacancies in a deep recession don't require a college degree. Seems incongruous when national data show the unemployment rate for those with a college degree is half the rate for people with only a high school degree (4.7% vs. 9.4%).

If anyone has any thoughts on this please post below or drop me an email.

UPDATE: Monte Hanson with the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development forwarded these thoughts from Steve Hine, the department's top labor economist:

• 27 percent of all the open jobs in the job vacancy survey are for temporary positions and 41 percent are for part-time positions. Given those factors, it would make sense that more than half (56 percent) of the available jobs don't require anything beyond a high school degree.

Students, jobless, poor: A view of MN's economy from the bus

Posted at 9:01 PM on September 15, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Education, Jobs & unemployment, Saving & spending

Lindy Ellenbaum drives the 539 Metro Transit bus from the Mall of America to Best Buy headquarters and back. The recession, he says, is changing who rides and where they go.

Ellenbaum, a source in MPR's Public Insight Network, dropped us a note recently calling himself "one of the lucky ones" in this economy because he still has a job and that the mix of students, jobless and low-income folks on his south suburban bus route bus has shifted with the economy.

Ellenbaum told us:

I drive the 539 from the Mall of America to Best Buy Headquarters and back, daily. Along my route I pass the VEAP food shelf on 98th and Irving, and the work force center near Old Shakopee and France. The traffic to VEAP has increased but the traffic to the Work Force Center has dropped off.

Not many going to Work Force Center these days...those going there earlier either got jobs or just gave up. I suspect the latter.

For a while I had a number of people that worked at Best Buy riding my bus, they're mostly gone now.

There are also a number of mothers with children riding (but) I think the lack of jobs has slowed the immigration into the city...I don't see so much of that any more.

The number of students riding my bus is also way up. I go through Normandale (community) College 7 times a day and there are four buses from the B line 539 and at least that many from Metro 535 that also go there...

Normandale confirms the student increases. Initial data show Enrollment is up 7 percent this semester over the same time last year, "which includes a nearly 9 percent jump of headcount in new-entering students," said Normandale spokeswoman Kate Metzger.

Are they adults trying to find their way back into the economy?

"We certainly have seen some adult-returning students, but 66 percent of our students are younger than 25 and 81 percent are younger than 30." she said.

"We won't know just how many adult-returners we have until we do our 30th day enrollment analysis."

Numbers from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development also bear out what Ellenbaum sees. Here's a look at data from all the workforce centers:

And, yes, the VEAP food shelf also matches up with Ellenbaum's observations.

Last month the food pantry served 6,400 people, "a record number for us," said VEAP development director Karin Meier. That's about 1,000 more then last August.

VEAP supplies five days of food every 30 days to people in need in Bloomington, Edina, Richfield and part of South Minneapolis.

The food shelf, she adds, is seeing larger households needing help -- more people being served from one address, "meaning either families, larger families or households that have opened their doors to help others during tough times."

The kind of people Ellenbaum sees regularly on the bus.

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Drop me a line or post below if you see anything different.

Ride another bus and notice anything interesting re: the economy? Let me know.

Check out the map below to see what others in our Network are saying about the jobs climate in Minnesota. Then share your story.