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9/18/2024 12:48:28 PM
Tim O'Neill
The Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development (DEED) recently released updated job vacancy data, covering the state of Minnesota and its regions. This data, housed in the Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) online tool, reveals hiring demand for specific industries and occupations. With Manufacturing Month just around the corner, let's look at how hiring demand is trending in the Metro Area's Manufacturing sector.
According to DEED's JVS data, employers in the Metro Area reported just over 6,800 Manufacturing job vacancies in 2023. This represents a 24.9% decrease in the number of such vacancies over-the-year, equivalent to about 2,300 vacancies; but is still the third highest number ever recorded. This trend mirrors the wider labor market, where the region witnessed a decrease in total job vacancies for all industries of 20.3% between 2022 and 2023. It should be noted that this analysis compares annual 2023 data with second quarter 2022 data (see Figure 1).
While Manufacturing witnessed decreased job vacancies between 2022 and 2023, the 6,816 vacancies in this industry in 2023 still represents the third highest average annual number of such vacancies since the JVS started in 2001. Much of this demand is due to the need to replace workers who have left through retirement or for other reasons.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), shows the share of older workers in Manufacturing increasing significantly over the past two decades. For example, between 2000 and 2023, the share of workers 55 years of age and older in Manufacturing increased from 11.6% to 27.2% in the Metro Area. Where the total number of Manufacturing jobs in the Metro Area decreased by 21.9% between 2000 and 2023, the number of Manufacturing jobs held by workers 55 years of age and older increased by 83.8%. The share of workers 65 years of age and older in Manufacturing increased from 1.5% to 5.7% during this period.
The need to fill replacement openings in Manufacturing is high in the Metro Area. This is also reflected in statewide trends looking forward. According to DEED's Employment Outlook, Production Occupations are anticipated to grow by 0.5% between 2022 and 2032. This is equivalent to approximately 1,062 net new jobs. More importantly, it's anticipated there will be over 92,000 labor market exit openings in Production Occupations during that period. These are openings largely due to current workers leaving their job, mainly through retirement.
The demand for production workers, and the demand for workers in the broader Manufacturing industry, remains strong in the Metro Area and Minnesota. In the region, those specific production occupations with the most job openings include:
Contact Tim O'Neill, Labor Market Analyst, at timothy.oneill@state.mn.us.
