Home to the state's second-largest metro, the Northeast Region has a strong industrial sector, tied largely to the area's abundant natural resources.
Most of the manufacturing base centers on mining and forest products industries. More than half of the sector's employment is in paper and machinery manufacturing.
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1/20/2017 12:04:56 PM
Erik White
With the release of December’s job numbers, the Duluth MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ended 2016 with positive year-over-year job growth. According to DEED’s Current Employment Statistics, total nonfarm employment in the Duluth-Superior MSA (St. Louis and Carlton counties in Minnesota and Douglas County in Wisconsin) ended at 133,896 jobs in December 2016, up 254 jobs, or 0.2 percent, compared to December 2015 (Figure 1).
The private sector accounted for all the job gains in the Duluth MSA over the year, adding 345 jobs for a 0.3 percent increase; government employers cut 91 jobs, a -0.3 percent decline. Average hours worked per week also increased for private-sector workers, climbing to 33.4 hours in December 2016, which was nearly two hours more per week than December 2006. Likewise, average private-sector earnings climbed to $24.76, up from $19.92 in 2006.
Strong year-over-year job gains in leisure and hospitality, education and health services, financial activities, and professional and business services offset declines in trade, transportation and utilities, information, and goods-producing industries like mining and manufacturing (Figure 2).
Contact Erik White at erik.white@state.mn.us or at 218-302-8413.
