Seasonal Shifts
School is about to start back up for the year, which means that just as students are planning what to wear for their first day back, so are their teachers, administrators, and other staff that make our education system work. This month's blogs focus on the importance of Educational Services in Northeast and Southwest, as well as blogs on changing college enrollments in Northwest, Central Minnesota's growing population, industry growth in the Twin Cities, and shares of female employment in Southeast. For more local information, please reach out to your Regional Analyst!
After gaining almost 60,000 new residents since 2010, Central Minnesota saw faster population growth than the state as a whole. All but two of the 13 counties in Central Minnesota added population over the past 12 years, providing a net gain of 59,172 people, for an 8.7% increase, compared to 7.8% for Minnesota. A growing population is the most important way for labor force growth to occur and a leading indicator of future labor force trends.
According to DEED's QCEW data, the Metro Area had 94,300 establishments supplying 1,718,974 covered jobs during 1st quarter 2023. The region was up +26,779 jobs (+1.6%) from 1st quarter 2022 and up +87,239 jobs (+5.3%) from 1st quarter 2021. However, the region is still down -38,394 jobs (-2.2%) from 1st quarter 2020. In other words, the Metro Area has regained about 70% of the more than 125,600 jobs it lost between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021, and still has some distance to go to get back to pre-pandemic employment levels.
In Northeast Minnesota, the Educational Services sector had 11,403 jobs across 264 establishments in 2022, good for 8.3% of regional employment, making it the 4th largest employing sector. The bulk of the sector's jobs were at Local (7,164) and State (2,379) Government institutions. Private school employment made up the remaining 1,860 jobs.
With August comes back-to-school planning, and so this should be the right time to examine college enrollment in Northwest Minnesota. The Minnesota Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS) provides student data from pre-kindergarten through completion of postsecondary education and into the workforce. Like most areas throughout the nation, college enrollment in Northwest Minnesota is shrinking.
Women play a vital and multifaceted role in the Southeast Minnesota workforce, contributing significantly to the region's economy. According to our Quarterly Employment Demographics data, over half (52.7%) of jobs in Southeast are held by women. High shares of female employment are found in service-oriented industries such as Health Care & Social Assistance (73.1%), Educational Services (69.6%), Finance & Insurance (69.1%), and Professional & Technical Services (60%). In contrast, there is a smaller share of women in goods-producing industries such as Mining (11.2%), Construction (12.1%), and Manufacturing (29.2%).
Even with seasonal fluctuations, Educational Services is a major employer in Southwest Minnesota, providing over 16,750 jobs throughout the 23-county region in the first quarter of 2023. On an annual average basis, Educational Services accounts for about 9% of total employment in the region, or about 1 in every 11 jobs. The Job Vacancy Survey showed more than 800 job vacancies in Educational Services in Southwest Minnesota in 2022, which was the highest number ever reported in the 20-year history of the survey.
2023 Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference -
New London MN - Thursday, Sept. 14 - Friday, Sept. 15
The Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities conference brings together community champions, economic development professionals, entrepreneurs and business leaders. The 2023 conference agenda and registration is now available, featuring an opening keynote from Betsy Bonnema, owner of Redstar Creative Agency & Marketing Un/Academy as well as a panel discussion on building thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems. Breakout sessions include topics on empowering diverse entrepreneurs, navigating cottage food production, exploring diverse financing tools, and building vibrant Main Streets.
We hope you are as excited as we are to gather in New London to learn and foster entrepreneurial communities across Minnesota!
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