On The Rebound
In this month's Local Look blogs from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's Labor Market Information office, we explore how each region is recovering from the impacts of the pandemic recession, both in specific demographics of the workforce and in specific industries.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is rebounding from pandemic-induced job losses that were particularly devastating for some industries. The Twin Cities has already regained 158,300 jobs since last year, but that also means that as of May 2021, the greater Twin Cities area still has significant ground to regain to reach pre-pandemic employment.
The rebounding employment that started in the third quarter of 2020 appears to have stopped the job losses for older workers, but the most recent data tells us that workers 55 years and older held 4,417 fewer jobs in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the year prior (see Figure 2). After losing a job will older workers be motivated to regain employment, or will this inflection point cause many to consider an early retirement?
While many labor market indicators in Northeast Minnesota are pointing in the right direction for people who are looking for work now, there is one factor that is important to keep an eye on. High numbers of people who are experiencing long-term unemployment can signal long-term challenges for those workers and an underutilized labor pool for employers.
The effects of COVID-19 have been wide-ranging on the Educational Services industry and hopefully a return to normal can be found this upcoming school year for this vital industry in Northwest Minnesota.
Given the number of job vacancies, the low jobseeker-per-vacancy ratio, and the struggle that many employers are experiencing trying to find workers, employers should consider hiring recently released individuals. While the stigma of having been incarcerated in a correctional facility remains, hiring a person who has been released from prison can be a win-win situation for both the employer and the new employee.
As the pandemic spread through the region last spring and summer, Retail Trade was one of the industries hardest hit, losing 1,765 jobs from the first quarter of 2020 to the second quarter, a -9.3% decline. That was worse than the total of all industries, which cut -6.8% of total employment from spring to summer 2020. But since then, Retail Trade has been one of the strongest industries in the region, actually showing a slight increase in jobs over the year from fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020.
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