Minnesota’s hospitality industry has been the hardest-hit when discussing workforce shortages: the industry is down 20,000 jobs compared to pre-covid levels, and nearly 50,000 workers permanently left the industry amidst the pandemic. This has dealt substantial devastation to the industry’s workforce pipeline.

Senator Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point) has introduced legislation that mitigates this problem by funding grants for an online hospitality program in partnership with Explore Minnesota Tourism. This program would be available at no cost to Minnesota residents and would address the critical workforce shortage by providing free training resources to build the knowledge of new and incoming hospitality workers.

“Minnesota’s tourism industry generates over $1 billion in state sales tax every year, making tourism an important cornerstone of our state’s economy. Our hospitality industry took the hardest hit in workforce shortages, and new hires that are filling the employment gaps are first-time workers lacking knowledge and training. This legislation works to address that problem, so we can get our hospitality and tourism industries back on track,” said Ruud.

Based on findings from South Dakota, Hospitality Minnesota believes a similar program could train up to 4,000 new or existing workers per year, generating a projected $160 million in wages.

This bill was introduced this week and was referred to the Senate Jobs Committee.