Labor Force Updates
In this month's Local Look blogs from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's Labor Market Information office, we explore the significant changes taking place in the labor market in each region.
Newly released data provides the entirety of employment trends for 2020. Using the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) we can research how different industry sectors fared with the impacts of COVID-19 and the resulting recession. In terms of total employment lost, Accommodation & Food Services was hit the hardest over the course of 2020.
The size of Central Minnesota's labor force peaked with a little over 400,000 workers in October 2019, just months before the Covid-19 pandemic entered our vocabulary. Since then the labor force in the region and across the country has declined dramatically. By February of 2021, Central Minnesota had lost about 12,500 workers, to just over 388,000 workers, a 3.1% decline from the previous year.
Recently, the labor force has received more attention simply because it declined so significantly during the last year. Historically quite stable, the statewide labor force shrank by nearly 120,000 workers or about -3.8% during the pandemic recession. In Northeast Minnesota, the decline of the labor force was even greater and continued through last October, when it was -5.9% lower (-9,700 workers) than in February 2020. As of February 2021, the labor force was still -3.3% lower than a year previously.
With the release of Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) employment data for the fourth quarter of 2020, we now have the clearest picture yet of how the pandemic-induced recession impacted Northwest Minnesota's economy. As has been covered in past monthly updates, Northwest Minnesota has seen the strongest bounce back from the pandemic recession of the six planning regions in the state.
Southeast Minnesota has seen steady population growth over time, adding just over 50,000 new residents during the past 20 years. But shifts in Southeast’s population moving forward will be fueled by the aging baby boomers who are moving up into higher age categories. Population projection data from the Minnesota State Demographic Center shows that the population between the ages of 45 to 74 are slated to see a decrease of almost 34,000 people from 2020 to 2040, which will bring changes to the region's labor force.
Like the rest of Minnesota, the labor force has been shrinking in the Southwest planning region throughout the past year, making it harder for employers to find workers to fill their open positions. In March of 2021, the 23-county planning region reported 210,862 workers, a decline of nearly 7,000 workers over the year. That is compared to 217,781 workers in March of 2020, right before the pandemic recession started.
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