Central Minnesota is a manufacturing stronghold, with several global manufacturing firms operating there.
The region is especially well known for its expertise in food processing, printing, furniture manufacturing, appliances, machinery and heavy equipment manufacturing.
View our latest blogs on CareerForce. Want the freshest data delivered by email? Subscribe to our regional newsletters.
2/22/2024 9:00:00 AM
Luke Greiner
As guardians of public safety, Police Officers and Firefighters play an indispensable role in upholding the fabric of our society. Within these noble professions lie not only a commitment to service but also a complex web of employment trends, recruitment challenges, and evolving career pathways.
For police departments across the nation, recruitment has emerged as a formidable challenge in recent years, presenting a series of hurdles unique to the police profession. One of the most pressing issues is the evolving perception of law enforcement within our communities. Heightened scrutiny in the wake of high-profile use of force incidents has cast a shadow over the noble work people working in Law Enforcement perform. These challenges only add to recruitment challenges produced by a tight labor market where there are ample opportunities in other occupations.
Police Protection in Central Minnesota has maintained slow and consistent employment growth since the end of the Great Recession, bucking the trend in the Twin Cities, where Police Protection has declined 5% since 2019. Excluding education and hospitals, about 14% of local government employment is from Law Enforcement Officers.
In Central Minnesota there are an estimated 1,080 Police & Sheriff's Patrol Officers, with another 250 people employed as First-Line Supervisors and 140 working as Detectives & Criminal Investigators. Typical wages range from roughly $65,000 - $110,000 depending on the occupation.
Over the past seven years there have been an average of between 10 or 20 Law Enforcement job openings at any given time across the region, with typical starting wages right around $20 per hour. Despite current recruitment challenges, all three Law Enforcement occupations are expected to grow just under 10% in the region over the coming decade. That would be the equivalent of 150 net new jobs, in addition to a need to refill about 450 existing jobs that become available due to labor market exits.
Contact Luke Greiner, Labor Market Analyst, at luke.greiner@state.mn.us
