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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12/6/2021 9:00:00 AM
Retail Trade accounted for 11% of the total jobs in the Southeast region in the second quarter of 2021, with 26,283 jobs at 1,657 employing establishments, after a big rebound from lows during the peak of the pandemic restrictions.
Like what was seen across all industries in the region, the Retail Trade industry was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Southeast Minnesota saw its number of jobs across all industries decreasing by a count of 26,631 jobs or -10.7%. At the same time, the number of jobs in Retail Trade decreased by 2,661 jobs or -10.2% from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 (see Figure 1).
Subsequently, while the number of jobs increased both across all industries and in the Retail Trade industry in the most recent year, from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, the bounce back in Retail Trade was steeper than that seen across all industries, with the former increasing by 12.1% (+2,832 jobs) while the latter increased by 8.1% (+17,931 jobs).
However, unlike what was seen across all industries, the Retail Trade industry began experiencing job loss years prior to the pandemic, beginning in 2016. More specifically, while the number of jobs across all industries increased by over 5,200 jobs (2.2%) from 2016 to 2019, Retail Trade experienced a decline of just under 1,400 jobs (-5.0%) during the same time frame. Overall, the number of jobs increased across all industries over the last decade to the tune of 9,217 (4.0%) while the number of jobs in the Retail Trade industry saw a decline of 200 jobs or -0.8%.
Despite the job loss trend over the past decade, there is still high demand for jobs in Retail Trade as evidenced by the skyrocketing number of job vacancies in the industry. The most recent estimates from DEED's Job Vacancy Survey show that there were 4,930 Retail Trade job vacancies in the Southeast region in the second quarter of 2021, which was not only the highest number of vacancies of any industry (22.9% of total vacancies), but was also the highest number of vacancies on record for the Retail Trade industry. In fact, the most recent estimate was almost 1,500 vacancies higher (42.6%) than was seen in the previous peak (3,458 vacancies in the fourth quarter of 2018).
Overall, the most recent estimates for job vacancies in the Southeast Region show that the number of openings has increased dramatically over the last decade. Since the second quarter of 2011, the number of vacancies has surged by 4,373 job openings for an increase of 785% (see Figure 2).
While it is exciting to see such a high number of Retail Trade job vacancies in the region, this also brings with it a problem when comparing the total number of job openings to the number of unemployed jobseekers in the region. In all, there were 21,510 job openings across all industries in the second quarter of 2021 in Southeast Minnesota. However, there were also only 9,842 unemployed jobseekers in the region, leaving the region with a jobseeker-per-vacancy ratio of 0.5 to 1, meaning that for every 10 job openings there were only 5 unemployed jobseekers. This low ratio has, and will definitely continue to have, an impact on the Retail Trade industry as Retail businesses continue to struggle to find workers to fill their job vacancies.
Contact Mark Schultz.
