Making Comparisons
This month's blogs examine a range of topics from Cost of Living and Wages in Northeast and Southeast, to unemployment in the Twin Cities and Southwest, to housing demand in Northwest, to job vacancies in Central Minnesota. For more local information, please reach out to your Regional Analyst!
As of May 2024, the Twin Cities Metro Area's labor force hit 1,720,261 people. The labor force is comprised of both employed and unemployed persons, specifically those actively searching for work. Being a separate survey, this estimate differs from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) estimates, which showed the Metro Area's labor force at 1,778,728 people in 2022. While the ACS 5-year estimates cannot be directly compared with DEED's LAUS estimates, the larger labor force size reported by the ACS in 2022 does reveal a major trend: the Metro Area's labor force size is down from previous years.
DEED's Job Vacancy Survey shows that Central Minnesota has been experiencing notable shifts in its job market, with significant new trends in job openings across various industries. As the region continues to evolve, these statistics provide crucial insights into the economic health and labor demands of Central Minnesota employers. Key sectors such as Construction and Manufacturing are among those showing a substantial decline in the number of openings, reflecting broader economic dynamics.
In addition to our more well-known wage data, we also create and publish estimates of what varying family types should expect to earn to meet basic needs. Our Cost of Living tool provides these estimates by major expense categories such as housing, transportation, child care, food, health care, other necessities, and taxes. These estimates are meant to be at the basic needs level, so not poverty level, but also not including any "extra" expenses like entertainment or recreation. We can examine the new estimates for Northeast Minnesota and see how they compare against wage figures that were also recently updated.
In Northwest Minnesota, there is an increasing need for housing to enable growth of the region's workforce. According to U.S. Census ACS 5-year estimates, the Northwest region's total housing units increased 2.4% from 2012 to 2022, while the population increased 4%. That population growth is increasingly driven by people moving to the region from other regions, states, and countries.
Updated annually, the Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS) tool provides detailed employment estimates and wage data, including figures at the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles. The data covers the entire United States, Minnesota, planning regions, economic development regions and Metropolitan Statistical Areas, offering a comprehensive overview of wages and employment estimates across different geographic areas. With just over 240,000 jobs, Southeast accounts for 8.3% of the state's total employment.
Minnesota's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate inched up to 2.8% in May 2024, well below the national rate of 4.0%. This indicates a continued tight labor market in the state, with less than 90,000 unemployed workers in a total labor force of about 3.1 million workers, though conditions have been loosening in recent months. Similarly, the unemployment rate in the 23-county Southwest Minnesota planning region was 2.7% in May 2024, the third lowest of the 6 planning regions in the state. Southwest's rate stayed at 2.7% for the second straight month, but was up slightly compared to 2.5% in May of 2023 and a low of 2.0% in May 2022.
.
|
