Partners boost north Minneapolis hiring.

Byline: William Morris

Six years in, a public-private partnership is beginning to move the needle on employment in north Minneapolis.

Focusing primarily on the five ZIP codes that make up the historically black north end, the Northside Job Creation Team includes employers, community groups, University of Minnesota researchers and other partners. Founded in 2012, the group set a goal to create 1,000 new jobs in north Minneapolis by 2019. At its first-ever north Minneapolis business summit last week, the group announced it had hit that goal and then some.

The organization has tallied nearly 450 direct jobs created by member employers, and claims indirect credit for additional 800-plus jobs at other employers, such as Minneapolis Public Schools, through advocacy, partnerships and other forms of assistance.

Much of the group's work is about finding and applying economic development best practices to the north Minneapolis economy, such as creating a catalogue of development-ready sites for businesses on the north end. But the team has a more fundamental purpose as well, said James De Sota, director of administration and projects at the university's Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center.

"More important, I think, is trying to get everybody aligned and working in the same direction," De Sota said. "That's one of the biggest things that the workforce task force and the Northside Job Creation Team have been working on."

The group got started in the early days of the Dayton administration, after community activists had invited Dayton to host a job summit for north Minneapolis, Community Director Bill English said during Wednesday's event.

"After he was elected, [Dayton] came here, I believe in the middle of the summer, and carried out his promise," English said. "We had a job summit. It was the first time a governor had visited north Minneapolis in 30 years."

That longstanding lack of executive attention is among many problems the north side has historically faced, De Sota said. Despite a tight labor market, unemployment in north Minneapolis is still about quadruple the rest of the state, he said.

"When you look at GED and high school graduation, there's still a large discrepancy," he said. "We're seeing that improve, just as it's improved in the rest of the city and the state, but there's still a gap."

That lack of educated workers is one factor that has led to a shortage of employers located in north...

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