Minnesota: Nice Growth For Nice People

Of all the national reputations to have, Minnesota arguably has the best one. Not that anyone from Minnesota would ever argue with you about it.

They do have a national reputation for not just niceness but Minnesota niceness to maintain after all.

And good news for the karmic clock: The nice people of Minnesota have some decent store front business growth to report. Hooray. But before breaking out the keg and heading to Lake Wobegon, it is worth noting that Minnesota’s success (much like their famed niceness) comes with something of an asterisk.

By The Store Front Numbers

The state kept pace with the nation at large in terms of overall growth, with 3.1 percent matched exactly. But the data drilled down a bit to find some differing trends. The biggest, most notable one was that the actual creation of establishments in the state was not too robust at 0.2 percent, with 10 times that amount seen regionally and nationwide, which gives the indication that, of course, it was the other factors, such as real wages and employment, that had been comparatively better in Minnesota’s case.

In fact, real wages were up by more than 5 percent in the most recent data, while they had been up less than 5 percent at large.