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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11/27/2023 9:00:00 AM
Luke Greiner, Amanda O'Connell
With just over 19,000 jobs at 1,441 establishments in 2023, Retail Trade is the third largest employing industry in Southwest Minnesota. Behind just Manufacturing and Health Care & Social Assistance, Retail Trade actually accounts for one in every nine jobs in the region, providing a variety of important job and career opportunities for workers across the age spectrum.
Retail Trade relies heavily on young workers, with teenagers comprising 19% of jobholders in the industry. As such, that is the third highest percentage of teenage workers, following Accommodation & Food Services (28.1%) and Arts, Entertainment & Recreation (20.0%), and well ahead of the Total of All Industries (8.2%). Another 14.1% of jobholders in Retail Trade were between 20 and 24 years of age, meaning about one-third of workers are under 25 years of age (see Figure 1).
According to data from DEED's Quarterly Employment Demographics program, the share of teenagers working in Retail Trade has increased over the past 10 years in Southwest Minnesota, especially since the pandemic in 2020. Likewise, the share of jobs held by older workers also increased since 2012, with workers aged 65 years & over now comprising almost 9% of all jobs. In contrast, the share of workers from 20 to 24 years declined, with a huge drop following the pandemic
Rising wages have drawn younger workers into Retail Trade in recent years, with the median hourly wage climbing almost $3.50 per hour from 2018 to 2022, and increasing about $3 per hour for teenaged workers. Wage increases were similar for the oldest workers, rising $3.15 over the past 5 years. Wages jumped even faster for 20 to 24 year olds, up almost $4 per hour from 2018 to 2022 (see Figure 2).
This is also reflected in rising median wage offers as reported in DEED's Job Vacancy Survey. Retail Trade employers in Southwest Minnesota reported a median wage offer of $13.54 in 2022, which was up from $12.74 in 2021 and $11.23 in 2019, prior to the pandemic. There were just over 1,850 job vacancies in Retail Trade in 2022, which was down slightly from the record levels set in 2021 as Retail Trade looked to hire more workers as it recovered from the Pandemic Recession. It was nearly 5000 more vacancies than in 2019.
For jobseekers looking for careers with low barriers to entry, great flexibility, and low but rising wages, Retail Trade has a lot to offer. In 2022, 77% of job vacancies in Retail Trade were part-time, 0% required education past high school, and only 15% required more than one year of work experience. Tasks associated with these jobs are typically learned through on-the-job training, and provide a lot of flexibility in both scheduling and responsibility.
Jobs in highest demand include: Retail Salespersons, Cashiers, Stockers & Order Fillers, and First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers. All four of these jobs are on the list of the top 30 jobs in demand that don't require a degree, with hundreds of openings in Southwest Minnesota right now, and more to come with seasonal hiring.
Contact Luke Greiner at luke.greiner@state.mn.us or Amanda O'Connell at amanda.oconnell@state.mn.us.
