Southeast Minnesota is a health care and agricultural powerhouse. The region is home to the renowned Mayo Clinic and some of the world's most recognized food companies and brands.
Advanced manufacturing is especially strong here, with machinery, chemicals, and electronics among the top products.
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7/15/2019 3:00:00 PM
Focused on making things better for other people, community and social service occupations include social workers, counselors, and religious workers. While they don’t make up a large portion of total employment in Southeast Minnesota, community and social service workers play an important role in the regional economy. The largest occupation within this occupational group is social and human service assistants, followed by mental health and substance abuse counselors, then child, family and school social workers (Table 1).
Median hourly wages for occupations within this group range from $14.85 for social and human service assistants to $35.88 for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists. In all, 13 of the 16 occupations have median wages over $20 an hour, seven have median wages above $25 per hour, and two have median hourly wages over $30.
Very few of the job vacancies have part-time hours. The highest percentage of part-time vacancies are for social and human service assistants – almost half of the openings are part-time. However, given that social and human service assistants account for only 51 of the total job openings, numerically this makes up a rather small number of part-time vacancies. Additionally, education, experience, and having a certificate/obtaining licensure appear to be critical for obtaining employment in these occupations, including 100 percent of the current job openings for mental health and substance abuse social workers requiring all three – post-secondary education, one or more years experience, and a certificate or license (Table 2).
Contact Mark Schultz.
