Manufacturing is the second largest industry in Central Minnesota, behind health care and social assistance. With 41,298 jobs at 1,156 firms, manufacturing accounts for 15.3 percent of all employment in the region. That is more concentrated than in the state as a whole, where 11.3 percent of total jobs are in manufacturing.

From 2011 to 2016, manufacturers in Central Minnesota added 4,500 new jobs, a strong 12.2 percent increase. However, manufacturers sliced 208 jobs in the past year, marking a decline of 0.5 percent from 2015 to 2016.

At a more detailed level, food manufacturing and fabricated metal product manufacturing are the two largest sectors in the region, with 7,754 and 6,949 jobs in 2016, respectively. Central Minnesota had 9.6 percent of total jobs in the state, but 13 percent of manufacturing jobs and about 17 percent of statewide jobs in those two manufacturing sectors.

Other areas of strength in the region include furniture and related product manufacturing (which includes kitchen cabinets); transportation equipment manufacturing; paper manufacturing; nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing (which includes granite countertops); and textile product mills. All of these are at least twice as concentrated in Central Minnesota as in the rest of the state.

Manufacturing is one of the highest paying industries in Central Minnesota. Total payroll in manufacturing neared $2.1 billion in 2016, accounting for 19 percent of total wages in the region. Average annual wages in manufacturing in the region were $50,727 in 2016. That was $9,800 and 24 percent higher than average annual wages across all industries. Manufacturing wages in the region increased 10.8 percent from 2011 to 2016, not keeping pace with an overall increase of 15.4 percent across all industries.

Central Spotlight: Manufacturing Wage Premiums in Central Minnesota

Manufacturing is Central Minnesota’s second largest industry with a variety of opportunities as diverse as the companies that operate in the region. Typical jobs in manufacturing range from team assemblers and sales representatives to accounting clerks and marketing managers.

Looking at the 20 most common production occupations among Central Minnesota manufacturers provides some insight into the types of opportunities the industry offers. Manufacturers in the region not only have ample job opportunities, they pay well, too. Although the median hourly wage for all occupations is $2.17 less in Central Minnesota compared to the statewide median, twelve of the twenty most common production occupations have higher median wages in the region than the state (see Figure 1).

With 2,750 jobs in the region, team assemblers are the largest production occupation in Central Minnesota. Median wages are $16 per hour – more than a dollar higher than the statewide median – with 25 percent of team assembly jobs paid over $19 per hour. Likewise, other large production occupations like machinists and assemblers and fabricators also enjoyed higher wages in Central Minnesota than the rest of the state.

In contrast, welders, cutters, solderers and brazers also comprised over 2,000 jobs in the region, but at $19.74 at the median, hourly wages were $0.60 lower in Central Minnesota than the state as a whole. Other occupations with lower wages include ophthalmic lab technicians, cutting, punching, and press machine setters, cabinetmakers and bench carpenters, CNC machine tool operators, and printing press operators.

Providing a clear vision of what career progression looks like can be a struggle in some industries. Luckily, many manufacturers can point to the nearly 1,800 first-line supervisors of production workers as a positive career path. Supervisors of production workers are one step down from a traditional management position and create a clear pathway for entry-level workers to move into upper middle-class wages with a median hourly wage of $28.58 in Central Minnesota. Typically, the requirements to become a first-line supervisor are based on experience and sometimes on industry-recognized credentials. Although the wages are slightly less in Central Minnesota, one-in-four production supervisor jobs pay $35.48 or more – which would surpass $70,000 per year for a full-time worker.

The largest regional wage premiums among the top 20 production occupations is for cutting and slicing machine operators and coating, painting, and spraying machine operators. Both occupations have well over a $2.00 median wage advantage in Central Minnesota compared to the statewide median, which would amount to about $5,000 in additional wages over a full-time work year. Combined, there are over 1,200 of these positions in Central Minnesota, with both having median hourly wages of more than $20 per hour.

These wage premiums for workers in the region could be because certain companies, and the processes they use, require higher skills. Or wages could be higher from employers competing for similarly skilled labor, or some combination of those and other factors. In any case, excellent wages and the opportunity for career advancement make manufacturing an industry worth considering.

For More Information

Contact Luke Greiner at 320-308-5378 or email Luke.Greiner@state.mn.us.