The state of Minnesota looks elegant for its minimalist offering to Amazon's regional headquarters which this month received huge grant offers from New York and the suburbs of Washington DC.

Twinned cities already have a growing presence on Amazon, including 3,000 jobs between its large warehouse in Shakopee and its expanding software center in Minneapollis.

In addition, some neighbors are unhappy in Brooklyn Park, where a company still announced, supposed to be Amazon, plans to build a distribution center that can employ 2,500 people, mainly pumpkin fields. Development always has detractors.

Amazon, from distribution to entertainment to server farms, has seen tremendous growth in revenue and market value since the Great Recession of 2008-09. This does not guarantee the continued success of a company that, until now, has failed to make profitable its growth.

And the local economy performed very well, with a record number of jobs and a low unemployment rate in 20 years, mainly due to organic growth in business. Here are some good news recently:

* Data keepers recently said that the number of Minnesota unemployed was the lowest since the Great Recession of 2008-09. Many employers are starving for workers with rising wages. The percentage of people considered long-term unemployed, as well as unemployment rates among African Americans and Latinos, continued to fluctuate at near-record levels.

* Alorica, the California-based call center operator, increases the base salary of its Mendota Heights site from $ 12 to $ 14, its goal being to double the number of jobs to 650 workers . Most workers will also qualify for a premium of $ 1.50 per hour, in addition to health care and other benefits. Kevin Greer, Facilities Manager for Mendota Heights, said that Alorica had chosen Twin Cities to grow because of the productive workforce.

This is one example of rising wages due to the demand to retain and attract good employees.

* Graco, a global manufacturer of fluid handling equipment based in Minneapolis, employs more than 1,600 people in the Twin Cities area, plans to create 84 jobs and invest $ 73 million to develop Rogers, adding 480 000 square feet to the existing 316,000 square foot manufacturing plant. With headquarters in Minneapolis and a flagship manufacturing facility of nearly 800 employees, Graco is committed to growing. And the company in his hometown has donated several million dollars to help the park board further develop adjacent waterfront properties, to the delight of the public.

The challenge is not to attract out-of-state companies with exorbitant subsidies that can cost more than $ 100,000 per job. He works with existing companies such as Graco, Proto Labs, Twin Cities Tactile Medical, H & B Elevators and others on expansion. This work continues without much fanfare.

The aggressive development of the workforce, from trade schools such as Dunwoody to community colleges and non-profit trainers, has also helped. They work with employers and local agencies to develop the next-generation workforce, including hard-to-employ people, such as former prisoners.

According to most surveys, twin cities are also a great place to start a business.