Southwest Minnesota is a national leader in agricultural production, and renewable energy.
The region's thriving manufacturing sector includes food processing, machinery, printing, metal products, and computers and electronic products.
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7/19/2023 9:00:00 AM
Luke Greiner, Amanda O'Connell
Having a comprehensive understanding of Occupations in Demand that considers current job vacancies, the number and types of jobs people have been laid off from, the prevalence of certain occupations in each region, longer term demand projections, and regional differences in labor market supply and demand is critical to helping employers, job seekers, career counselors and educators during economic recovery and growth. A new set of Occupations in Demand was published in July 2023, reflecting changing demand from employers in the region.
As shown by the most recent Job Vacancy Survey and the monthly Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey, tens of thousands of Minnesota employers are looking for workers. There are around 200,000 job vacancies across the state, and more than 14,000 openings in Southwest Minnesota. Many employers with job openings are finding it difficult to locate and hire new workers.
DEED's Occupations in Demand (OID) tool was developed to provide a more comprehensive look at current demand. The updated OID list is a ranking of occupations that have the most favorable demand conditions as measured by the following factors:
Based on this comprehensive set of data, occupations are ranked and split into quintiles based on demand, with 5 stars representing the highest level of demand and 1 star the lowest. In Southwest Minnesota, there are about 90 occupations in the 5 star category and more than 275 occupations in the top three levels of demand. There are also over 180 occupations in low demand, including some that still have lots of job postings, though those are offset by even larger numbers of unemployed workers from those occupations.
The top 25 occupations in demand in Southwest Minnesota span a range of occupational groups and industries of employment, including Healthcare Support, Transportation, Sales, Food Preparation & Serving, Education, Office & Administrative Support, Production, and more. Seven of the top 10 occupations can be started with a High School Diploma or less and some level of on-the-job training, while the other three require postsecondary education (see Figure 1)
The top 10 occupations in demand are:
In addition to displaying the OID scores, the OID tool also includes employment projections supplied by the Employment Outlook program, wage data from OES, information on the typical education (or degree) or training required, and details on related training programs offered around the state. This information helps the end user determine if the job is attractive to them and what additional skills or training might be necessary to obtain it.
Contact Luke Greiner at luke.greiner@state.mn.us or Amanda O'Connell at amanda.oconnell@state.mn.us.
