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U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone joined local officials for a closed meeting in St. Cloud Thursday, one day after the city's second-largest employer announced it was probably going out of business. The parent company of Minnetonka-based Fingerhut announced it will eliminate the catalog and Internet retailer if a buyer cannot be found. It would be the biggest one-time job loss in Minnesota history. And it would be a major economic shock for St. Cloud, home to almost half of Fingerhut's workforce. St. Cloud is already bracing for the impact.

	State Rep. Joe Opatz, DFL-St. Cloud, says he's very concerned about the impact of the Fingerhut closure on the St. Cloud area economy. He talked with MPR's Tim Pugmire about how the state might help the employees involved. Listen to the interview. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

St. Cloud leaders locked themselves away with county and state officials and Sen. Wellstone, DFL-Minn., in an emergency brainstorming session. There's no city policy on the books that could hope to deal with a sudden loss of 2,700 jobs, and City Administrator Chris Hagelie says St. Cloud needs to get a game plan together.

"To find out some of the dos and don'ts, how to handle the situation. To find out what resources can be brought, what are available. To solicit coordination and cooperation. That's an important thing," says Hagelie.

Federated Department Stores bought Fingerhut in 1999 for its e-commerce potential. But the parent company said Wednesday Fingerhut had become a drag on the company, losing as much as $30 million last year, and was no longer worth holding on to.

It seems unlikely a buyer will turn up. By summer, most Fingerhut employees will be out of work, and the company's two-million square foot distribution center in St. Cloud could be nearly empty.

Michelle Ostrom, a labor market analyst for the Department of Economic Security, says the economic shock waves will reach into the surrounding communities. That's because of the large number of Fingerhut workers who commute into St. Cloud.

"Rural Minnesota has already had a lot of layoffs in the last year. This punch is another blow that's really going to knock the wind out of central Minnesota," says Ostrom.

Retraining will be essential because many of the Fingerhut jobs were low-skilled. But new numbers show the job vacancy rate around St. Cloud is painfully low compared to elsewhere in the state. The rate in Stearns and Benton counties is 2.6 percent. In the rest of greater Minnesota, the number is 3.4 percent.

	St. Cloud Mayor John Ellenbecker, who just took office two months ago, says the city will try its best to help find a buyer for the Fingerhut operation. Ellenbecker says there isn't much else the city can do to help workers if they lose their jobs. He says the state should step in to help. (Photo courtesy of St. Cloud mayor's office)

"There's less opportunities because many of the desirable jobs have been taken already - by people who have been previously laid off," says Ostrom. "I think that anybody can be retrained and go back to work. It's just the quantity of people reentering the workforce, looking for jobs all at one time."

"I think there's going to be a lot of hardship. These aren't jobs that are easily replaced," says State Rep. Joe Opatz, DFL-St. Cloud. He says all levels of government need to work together to get ready.

"We responded here at the Legislature to the loss of jobs with LTV on the Iron Range, by extending the amount of time workers could get unemployment benefits. I think that's something we should be looking at, and beefing up whatever agencies we can to provide counseling and job referrals and other kinds of skill development," Opatz said.

The United Way of Central Minnesota is one group outside government gearing up to cover similar ground.

"We fund a program that's a 24-hour referral and help-line kind of a service, called First Call for Help, that will be a point of contact for many people that may be needing basic services such as food, clothing, shelter, those kinds of things," says director Noreen Dunnells.

The United Way helps fund and organize more than 50 local nonprofit agencies. Like the people in city government, Dunnells anticipates many strategy sessions this spring to coordinate their efforts as the layoffs approach.

One day after the announcement, leaders in central Minnesota have shifted into crisis mode. The news hit suddenly and didn't leave much room for hope. But if there is any silver lining for St. Cloud and the employees of Fingerhut, it is the months they will have to get ready.

Closure plans for Fingerhut