40 Percent

A recent issue of the Twin Cities Business Journal (Minnesota) included a two page chart depicting Minnesota's "50 Largest Employers" (ranked by in-state employees - March 2, 2007). A quick tally count reveals that 9 of these 50 employers are governments/government entities/Indian tribal governments (which are ultimately controlled by the federal government) which sounds pretty good right -- it is ONLY 9 of the 50 so government isn't too big ?

However by analyzing the "Top Ten" entities in this list of employers we find (and should be very concerned) that --

• 3 of these 10 entities are government entities -- State of Minnesota, US Federal Government, and University of Minnesota
• Minnesota's LARGEST employer is the "State of Minnesota" itself -- not famous Minnesota entities like 3M or Target Corporation but our own state government
• A full 40% of the employees in this Top Ten list (107, 945 of 266,790 employees who work for the ten largest employers) work for the 3 government entities

Personally I would rather see 3M produce another great product like Post-It Notes versus seeing another research report created by Minnesota's state government.

Todd