Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order this week eliminating the need for applicants for most state government jobs to have a four-year college degree.

The executive order dropped the degree requirements for about 75 percent of the government jobs in Minnesota to help the state recruit and retain a “talented and diverse workforce,” wrote Walz, a Democrat.

With 38,000 employees serving in 1,800 different job classes, Minnesota is the largest employer in the state, he said.

By dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree for the majority of state jobs, the governor hopes to encourage more people to apply and help hiring managers find suitable candidates over the next few years. The 2024 and 2025 state budget will require state agencies to recruit and hire more employees in an already tight labor market, he said.

The Monday order also calls for ways in which the state can clarify and streamline the application process.

One of the barriers to recruiting state employees, he wrote, is that many of the job descriptions require a four-year-degree when in actuality doing the job does not require that level of education for the employee to succeed.

Many state job postings don’t include a way to “account for job-related lived experiences,” he said.

State employees “play a crucial role in the delivery of services, including plowing snow-covered highways, maintaining our state parks and trails, administering state grant programs, and providing care to our most vulnerable Minnesotans,” he said.

He noted that the state is putting in practice several measures to retain the employees it already has, including addressing concerns expressed when people resign. For instance, 18 percent cite management practices for the reason they leave, he said.

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