Business and Economic News

Another COVID-19 ripple effect: Many meat processors booked up through deer season
As the fall hunting season prepares to ramp up this month, some local butchers and meat markets might have to turn their game customers away. Many processors are already operating at full capacity — a ripple effect of COVID-19 closures at major pork and beef processors this spring.
U.S. unemployment rate falls to 8.4 percent even as hiring slows
Employers added 1.4 million jobs last month, the Labor Department said, down from 1.7 million in July and the fewest since hiring resumed in May. The economy has recovered barely half the 22 million jobs that vanished when the pandemic paralyzed the nation in early spring.  
Judge largely backs state regulators’ handling of PolyMet permit
Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthmann largely sided with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s handling of a key water quality permit for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine. But the judge ruled that the MPCA improperly destroyed documents critical to the case.
New jobless claims drop below 1 million, but there's a caveat
Another 881,000 people applied for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department says. That's down from the previous week, but the report comes with an asterisk.
Yao Yang seeks generational change at Hmong Chamber of Commerce
Some women business owners say they’ve felt neglected by the Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce. Yao Yang is determined to change that.
COVID-19 looms over sugar beet harvest
Sugar beet growers and processors hire thousands of workers each year of the harvest. This year they need to protect them from COVID-19 to ensure the harvest is brought in.