Which industries employ the largest shares of Somali Americans in Hennepin, Ramsey, and other Minnesota counties in 2025?
Executive summary
Somali Minnesotans in 2024–25 were concentrated in a handful of sectors: health care (especially home health care), education, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing — with notable sub‑concentrations in food and animal‑food processing and traditional entry‑level meatpacking and hospitality jobs [1] [2] [3] [4]. The Twin Cities, anchored in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, hold the largest Somali population, but available reporting and analyses do not provide a complete, granular county‑by‑county breakdown of employment shares for 2025, so conclusions about precise percentages by county rely on aggregated regional sources and the American Community Survey syntheses cited in local reporting [5] [1].
1. Health care and home‑based care: the largest single employer in practice
Multiple state and local analyses identify home health care and related personal care roles as among the single largest industries employing Somali immigrants in Minnesota, with one analysis noting "over 15%" of Somali immigrants working in home health care and KSTP reporting heavy concentrations in home health roles and food manufacturing — indicating health‑care services are a primary employment pathway into the labor market for many Somali Minnesotans [2] [3].
2. Education and broader health services: education plus clinical work
Empowering Strategies’ synthesis of American Community Survey data lists education and healthcare jointly among the top industries for Somali workers, and reporting that uses ACS microdata treats education and non‑hospital health services as leading categories where Somali residents appear in disproportionate numbers compared with some other immigrant groups [1].
3. Retail, transportation and warehousing: everyday economy anchors
Retail trade and transportation/warehousing regularly appear in reporting as major employers for Somali Minnesotans, reflecting work in convenience and grocery retail, taxi and ride services, delivery, and logistics — industries tied to flexible hours and entry‑level hiring that historically drew new refugees and secondary migrants to the Twin Cities [1] [4].
4. Manufacturing, meatpacking and food processing: the historical foothold
Meatpacking and broader food manufacturing were the original draw for many Somali refugees to Minnesota and remain important; reporting cites Marshall area meatpacking and later concentrations in food and animal food processing, with a specific note that Somali workers make up a notable share (11%) of animal food processing workers in a state analysis [4] [3] [6].
5. Hospitality, driving and small business: diversified pathways and entrepreneurship
Hospitality work plus taxi and driving jobs are repeatedly named in oral histories and regional profiles as early and continuing employment channels for Somali immigrants, while entrepreneurship — restaurants, retail shops and service businesses in Minneapolis and beyond — is documented but characterized in different sources as present and growing rather than dominant in employment share [4] [7] [3].
6. County picture and data limits: Hennepin, Ramsey dominant but quantitative gaps remain
The Twin Cities metro — principally Hennepin and Ramsey counties — contains the largest Somali population and therefore the largest counts of workers in these industries, a point repeated in public‑facing summaries of ACS estimates and journalism [5] [7]. However, the sources provided synthesize statewide or metro ACS data and journalistic reporting; none supplies a full, explicit table of county‑level industry shares for Somali residents in 2025, so exact shares by county (Hennepin vs. Ramsey vs. Stearns, Kandiyohi, etc.) cannot be precisely enumerated from the available documents [1] [8].
7. Politics, narratives and alternative readings of the data
Context matters: some outlets and commentators emphasize Somali economic contribution and concentration in essential sectors to rebut political attacks (KSTP, Empowering Strategies), while others foreground disparities or alleged fraud to argue the opposite (CIS and certain national pieces), creating competing narratives that can shape which industries are highlighted or stigmatized in coverage [3] [9] [10] [4]. The underlying data source for many summaries is the American Community Survey; interpretations differ by selection and framing of categories [1].
Conclusion
Taken together, the available 2024–25 reporting shows Somali Minnesotans are most heavily employed in health care (notably home health), education, retail, transportation/warehousing, and manufacturing (food and meatpacking), with the Twin Cities — including Hennepin and Ramsey counties — holding the largest concentrations; precise county‑by‑county employment shares for 2025 are not fully published in the provided sources and would require direct ACS cross‑tabulations or county labor data to quantify more granularly [2] [1] [3] [5].