By Tom Robertson
Minnesota Public Radio News

BEMIDJI — Rural Minnesotans are less optimistic about the economy than people in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, according to a new study by the Blandin Foundation.

The Blandin Foundation’s Rural Pulse survey, to be released today, found that while about 40 percent of respondents in the Twin Cities thought there aren’t enough local job opportunities, 56 percent of rural Minnesotans thought so.

“Recovery hasn’t made it to all people,” said Kathleen Annette, president of the Grand Rapids-based foundation. “And there are those in rural communities that have less optimism. And those are primarily those that are making less than $35,000 a year, and they’re older than the age of 35.”

The Blandin Foundation, a funder of Minnesota Public Radio, conducted telephone interviews with more than 1,000 residents of rural Minnesota between March 7-15. Between March 19 and April 1, it conducted interviews with 549 residents of the seven-county Twin Cities metro area.

Its latest survey — which for the first time includes the Twin Cities metro area — shows that demand for living-wage jobs far outweighs all other concerns in the state, including education and health care.

Among those who agree that the post-recession economy is still a big problem in greater Minnesota is Mark Bublitz, director of crisis services at Northern Pines Mental Health Center in Brainerd, a town of about 13,600 that saw the highest unemployment in the state at the height of the recession.

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