Enterprise Minnesota and partners revealed the 15th annual State of Manufacturing findings at an event at Minnesota Power/ALLETE on Tuesday morning.

The overall consensus is that it’s a challenging time, with new mandates from the legislature.

Still, there is a feeling of momentum for manufacturers, as fears of a recession drop.

“I think we are excited in the number of people who’ve gotten interested in these results, and try and make a difference with our elected officials. There’s a lot of follow up with this data. And technical colleges are getting aggressive in outreach to communities,” shared Bob Kill, President and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota.

Leaders shared there are around 8000 manufacturers in Minnesota, with about 5000 having fewer than 10 employees. About 400 took the phone survey last fall.

Kill said that legal marijuana has presented some challenges as well, and companies might have to do different performance metrics, since you can’t test for it anymore.

The Entrepreneur Fund is all about expanding their ability to grow. “We work with a number of manufacturing facilities. And our goal is to help them grow their employee base,” shared Mike Korte, a Senior Loan Officer out of their Grand Rapids office.

Another partner in the presentation is APEX. President Rachel Johnson said, “I think people around the state and the nation still have an antiquated perception of our region. Telling the stories about the innovation that’s happening here is critical.”

For results of the survey: https://www.enterpriseminnesota.org/state-of-manufacturing/

The event on Tuesday was put on by APEX, Minnesota Power/ALLETE and the Entrepreneur Fund.