The Minnesota Workforce Center provides resources for both job seekers and employers. Information on the labor market, taxes, labor laws, unemployment, employment law, training and more are available. The Center assists with recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining employees and also operates the Rural Minnesota CEP program, which works with unemployed and underemployed residents to help find self-sustaining employment. Services include job search classes, help with job retention and resume writing, youth services and on-the-job training contracts.

Two specific programs within the center related to employers seeking employees are:

• Job Training Partnership Act Programs (JTPA)
• Targeted Job Tax Credit:

Job Training Partnership Act Programs (JTPA)
Rural Minnesota CEP has JTPA and other programs available to subsidize employer costs to train qualified applicants. The program involves matching an employer’s business employment needs with qualified applicants. Employers retain full control over hiring, firing, and wage setting providing the wage is equal to wages paid to others for the same work. The employer can receive a 50% reimbursement for a period of up to six months.

Targeted Job Tax Credit
The purpose of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit is to provide a federal tax credit to businesses that hire individuals from certain “targeted” groups. These groups include persons with special employment needs or persons with a particularly high rate of unemployment. An employer is unlimited in the hiring of eligible applicants and in the frequency of tax credit claims. Based up on the first $6,000 paid to targeted members, employers receive a tax credit equal to 40 percent of wages the first year followed by 25 percent the second year. The maximum tax credit per eligible person hired is $2,400.00