New Year, New Economic Updates
In this month's Local Look blogs from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's Labor Market Information office, we examine the pandemic's impacts on industries - including a continuing focus on health care - across the state's six workforce development regions.
According to DEED’s Job Vacancy Survey (JVS), there were nearly 15,000 Metro Area job vacancies in Health Care and Social Assistance. Broken down by specific occupation, employers reported the most vacancies for Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses, Nursing Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians and Registered Nurses.
With 2020 now in the past, a precarious New Year’s optimism has been the talk of many regarding the year ahead. This is understandable since 2020 proved incredibly difficult. 2021 will certainly carry forward a number of challenges that 2020 dumped on us. It will take some time for the businesses and workers of Central Minnesota to rebuild and return to pre-COVID economic levels. The data show we experienced a slightly reduced amount of new business growth from March to April 2020, but a huge increase in business closings during the second quarter. While not a doomsday scenario, the numerous impacted entrepreneurs and workers may need to rely on the optimism that a new year typically heralds for many months to come.
Nurses and Physicians are probably the first two occupations that come to mind when thinking of the health care field. However, there are many different occupations with varying responsibilities and educational and training requirements for which the future is equally bright in Northeast Minnesota. This blog highlights five in-demand occupations that may be less well known yet still present great opportunities for those interested in health care careers in Northeast Minnesota.
As it serves an increasingly diverse population in the region, the workforce in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry has also become more racially diverse over time. Utilizing the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators dataset, we can examine the change in the racial make-up of industries in Northwest Minnesota. Health Care is already relatively diverse, but due to the impacts of COVID-19, there is an opportunity to increase the diversity of the industry’s workforce even more by recruiting laid-off workers from highly impacted industries, like Leisure & Hospitality.
Health Care and Social Assistance is the largest industry by employment in Southeast Minnesota, providing over one-quarter of the total jobs in the region. While it may seem counterintuitive, the industry is not immune to the employment impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, it lost over 4,000 jobs from the first to the second quarter of 2020, equaling a drop of 6%. Additionally, all four sub-sectors in Health Care and Social Assistance, which includes Ambulatory Health Care Services, Hospitals, Nursing and Residential Care Facilities, and Social Assistance, saw a loss of jobs during that time frame.
Combined, Hospitals and Clinics account for just over one-third of total employment in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry. But they also overshadow the other sectors of Health Care and Social Assistance that employ people across the region. Serving the region’s older population, the largest health care sector in Southwest Minnesota is actually Nursing & Residential Care Facilities, which provided 10,865 jobs at 261 establishments. That was over 3,000 jobs larger than both Ambulatory Health Care Services (which includes Offices of Physicians) and Hospitals, and twice as big as Social Assistance
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work, prompting us to think of new ways to share information with our stakeholders. While we're certainly getting used to attending virtual meetings, our regional analysts miss being present with and being able to present to all of you. To help provide updated economic and labor market information, DEED’s Regional Analysis & Outreach Unit has created a set of regular economic video updates that local partners can use to better understand their changing regional conditions. These short videos can be played at meetings, or you can reach out to us for the real thing!
Please provide feedback to cameron.macht@state.mn.us so we can continue to make these useful for you.
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