Economic Overview
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Major companies and employers

Success attracts success. so it’s no surprise that some of the world’s most recognized companies call Minnesota home – and many more have major operations here.

It’s the ideal environment for dreaming … for taking risks … for turning big ideas into big success. Small companies get big. Big companies get bigger. Momentum builds momentum.

The Twin Cities ranked among the top six cities chosen by BNET as a Hot city for the next Decade.

The scientists and engineers, architects, lawyers, and computer scientists that makeup the professional workforce in the twin cities account for 23.6 percent of the total labor force and have an average wage of $50,779, ranking 22nd in the nation.

There were about 15,000 job vacancies in the Twin Cities area, about 58 percent of the 25,800 vacancies in the state in fourth quarter 2009.

The labor force across the state is projected to grow to 3.2 million workers by 2020. Minnesota has the fifth highest labor force participation rate in the nation

 

The cost of living in the Twin Cities is far lower than metropolitan areas such as New York (218.0), San Francisco (162.1), Boston (131.1) and Chicago (118.3).

There is no sales tax on clothing, some services and food items.

The state sales tax is 6.875% (some metro area cities assess an additional .25% to .75% local sales tax).

 

Economic Overview

Metro Area Expansions

McQuay International recently opened a $52 million research and testing center in Plymouth. A manufacturer of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, McQuay International, which is owned by Osaka, Japan-based Daikin Industries, has more than 1,000 employees in Minnesota. The 49,000-square-foot Plymouth facility will develop new commercial air conditioning systems.

Open systems International Inc. plans to build a $20 million, 95,000-square-foot headquarters facility in Medina. OSI, which specializes in energy management software, has a current workforce of about 190 employees and expects to grow to 230 employees in 2011.

Galil Medical moved its global headquarters to Arden Hills. With offices currently in Yokneam, Israel; Plymouth Meeting, Pa.; and London, the company, which manufactures needles that deliver super cold gas that destroys cancer tumors, opened its Arden Hills facility in fourth quarter 2009.

Cigna corp., a health-services company in Eden Prairie, plans to hire 180 people to add to its current workforce of 750. These new positions are for the company’s Integrated Personal Health Team.

Due to worldwide demand for clean water, Dow Water & Process solutions is adding 40 new employees at its plant that opened last year in Edina. The facility makes industrial-sized filters similar to those used in large salt-water desalination plants around the world. Next door to its Edina plant, the company is currently building a manufacturing line to make filters used in residential sinks and appliances.

iQor Inc., a New York City-based company that specializes in providing call center services for companies around the world, has opened a new call center in Plymouth. The 49,000-square-foot facility has a capacity for more than 1,000 employees. About 550 employees from a previous iQor call center in St. Louis Park have moved to the new facility. The company expects to hire an additional 160 staff over the next year.

Mmiths Medical plans to hire about 50 workers at its Twin Cities location where it manufactures a range of infusion pumps, devices used to deliver medication and other treatments to patients. Smiths will move the manufacturing of a veterinary line and pulse oximeters to the Twin Cities.

St. Jude Medical recently opened a new global headquarters and Atrial Fibrillation Technology Center at its Little Canada campus. The $62 million, 180,000-square-foot building on 10 acres includes office space, research and development facilities, light manufacturing and training facilities.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. is planning a groundbreaking this summer for a new state-of-the-art data center in Chaska. The 190,000-square-foot project is slated for completion in mid-2012 at a cost of $100 million to $150 million.

Minnetonka-based Michael Foods Inc. recently expanded into a larger facility in Chaska. The Chaska plant will prepare and package potatoes under the Simply Potatoes brand. The $70 million new processing plant is expected to create 100 jobs and retain 300 others in the Twin Cities.

A maker of playground equipment, Xccent Play, has moved from its facility in Osceola, Wis., to a brand-new 100,000-square-foot facility in Wyoming, Minn. Groundbreaking for the $7 million project occurred in the fall of 2009, and Xccent began occupying the new location in March.

Rudolph technologies recently relocated its headquarters to Minnesota from New Jersey. The company, which makes technology used by semiconductor chipmakers, will begin making an additional line of products in Bloomington later this summer and expects to add up to 40 new positions.

Construction has begun on a new $30 million plant for baldinger bakery on St. Paul’s east side. The new 140,000-square-foot facility will be a candidate for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The bakery needs the new facility to allow for continued growth.

 

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