What are employment rates, industry distributions, and wage gaps for Somali Americans across Minnesota counties as of 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting and public-data summaries provide partial, county-level population distributions for Somali Minnesotans and sectoral patterns (notably concentration in home health care, meatpacking/agriculture and small-business entrepreneurship) but do not supply a complete, county-by-county ledger of 2025 employment rates, industry shares, or precise wage gaps. State and nonprofit summaries put Minnesota’s Somali population in the tens of thousands (e.g., ~61,000 by some ACS-derived tallies) and identify Hennepin and Ramsey as leading counties for Somali residents [1] [2] [3]. Sources explicitly note higher poverty and historically lower median incomes for Somali communities in Minnesota but do not publish a comprehensive 2025 county-level employment-rate × industry × wage-gap dataset [4] [5] [6].
1. Where Somali Minnesotans live: county concentration and scale
Demographic analyses using American Community Survey (ACS) estimates show Minnesota concentrates the largest Somali population in the U.S.; recent compilations rank Hennepin and Ramsey counties at the top, with Dakota, Anoka and other Twin Cities suburbs also hosting sizable communities—Neilsberg’s 2025 county ranking and similar ACS-based summaries list roughly 61,000 Somali residents statewide and place most of them in Twin Cities counties [1] [2] [3]. MNopedia and Minnesota Compass contextually confirm the Twin Cities metropolitan area is the primary settlement zone for Somalis seeking jobs, services and social networks [3] [7].
2. Employment levels: broad trends, not county detail
Multiple sources report Somali labor-market participation rose over time but has lagged some statewide averages; Wikipedia and MN historical reporting cite steadily increasing employment since earlier decades (e.g., mid-2010s employment rates near 58–62% nationally/in Minnesota in earlier ACS snapshots), but they do not provide a city-or-county-by-county employment rate for 2025 [4]. Older state analysis and reporting emphasize higher poverty and unemployment rates among Somali Minnesotans relative to many non-Somali groups, with labor-force participation gaps for Somali women noted in state demographer commentary (about a 10-percentage-point gap reported from earlier data) [6]. Available sources do not provide a full 2025 county-by-county employment-rate table for Somali residents (not found in current reporting).
3. Industry distribution: key sectors identified, with limits
Reporting and policy notes repeatedly identify a handful of industries where Somali workers are concentrated: home health care services (over 15% of Somali immigrants in Minnesota in one Chamber summary), meatpacking/processing and other manual-entry industries historically linked to initial settlement, and growing entrepreneurship in retail and small businesses [8] [9] [5]. Job-board listings from Indeed/Glassdoor/ZipRecruiter demonstrate demand for Somali-speaking roles in education, interpretation, and human services across Minneapolis–St. Paul but are not a statistical census of employment by industry [10] [11] [12] [13]. No source supplies a validated 2025 county-level industry-share breakdown for Somali workers (not found in current reporting).
4. Wages and wage gaps: directional signals, missing granular figures
Several pieces note lower median household incomes and higher poverty in Somali communities—some articles cite median Somali household incomes around the high-$30,000 range or “nearly 40% below poverty” for earlier years—but precise 2025 wage-gap percentages by county or by industry are not published in the available set [5] [4]. Minnesota’s 2025 minimum-wage context (statewide $11.13/hr as of Jan. 1, 2025) provides a policy floor relevant to lower-wage Somali workers but is not a substitute for measured wage-gap data [14]. Therefore, a county-level Somali vs. non‑Somali wage-gap matrix for 2025 cannot be assembled from the cited materials (not found in current reporting).
5. Recent political and programmatic stresses that could affect labor metrics
Reporting from late 2025 shows political actions and national headlines — including President Trump’s statements about ending temporary protections for some Somali migrants in Minnesota — that could affect employment stability, workforce participation and program eligibility for affected individuals; news coverage emphasizes legal and practical uncertainties and community alarm but does not quantify labor-market impacts yet [15] [16] [17]. Policy debate and proposed state-level workforce bills (H.F. No. 4136) point to recognition of underemployment and efforts to fund internships and job-training for Somali youth [18].
6. What you can and cannot conclude from available sources
You can conclude: Minnesota houses the nation’s largest Somali population concentrated in Twin Cities counties; Somali employment has grown since initial resettlement years; certain industries (home health care, meatpacking/processing, small businesses and bilingual public-service roles) are important employers; and Somali households show higher poverty/lower median incomes in multiple reports [1] [3] [8] [9] [5] [4]. You cannot conclude: an authoritative, county-by-county 2025 set of Somali employment rates, industry-distribution percentages and wage-gap figures — those granular statistics are not published in the sources provided (not found in current reporting).
If you want a next step, public microdata (ACS 1-year or 5-year tables via the Census Bureau or Minnesota Compass customized tables) or state labor-department cross-tabs would be the authoritative sources to request for county-level employment, industry and earnings comparisons for Somali-identified residents.