Job vacancies in Minnesota decline by 24.7%, says Department of Employment and Economic Development
MINNEAPOLIS — Results from a recent survey put out by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development show that job vacancies have dropped 24.7% over the last year.
A press release from DEED states that the drop in vacancies is due to a return of normal hiring levels following rapid employment growth coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more people joining the labor force.
According to DEED, this is the fifth highest number of vacancies on record in Minnesota since 2002, but significantly lower than the numbers of vacancies reported during the past two years.
However, the labor market remains tight.
DEED reports that there is nearly two job openings for each unemployed person in the state. Compared to 2022, the number of vacancies decreased and the number of unemployed individuals has increased slightly.
In 2023, there were 87,000 unemployed workers statewide and there were 0.6 unemployed persons for each vacancy, up slightly from the last two years but just below levels prior to the pandemic, said a press release from DEED.
Some other interesting data that came out of the DEED survey was what industries are being most impacted by vacancies.
The survey results showed that health care and social assistance had the most job vacancies with more than 36,000 openings —down from a record of 45,000 in 2022 — followed by retail with almost 24,000 vacancies (compared to 28,500 in 2022), accommodation and food services with 18,600 vacancies (compared to 26,000 in 2022) and manufacturing with almost 11,800 vacancies (down from 19,000 in 2022).
Combined, these four industries account for almost two-thirds of the total openings in the state.
In addition, the survey also reported that the five occupations with the most job vacancies during 2023 were retail salespersons (7,599 vacancies), personal care aides (5,669 vacancies), fast food workers (5,648 vacancies), registered nurses (4,382 vacancies), and food prep supervisors and serving workers (4,156 vacancies).
DEED reported that 56.3% of all job vacancies were located in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area.
Despite some of the results of the survey, DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek remains hopeful about the direction the state is moving in economically.
"The Walz-Flanagan Administration is making historic investments that both increase equity in our economy and create work-ready employees to meet the needs of employers in high-demand sectors," said Varilek. "Brand-new initiatives at DEED like Drive for Five, Targeted Populations Workforce Programs and Clean Economy Equitable Workforce are focused, high-impact strategies to help more Minnesotans enter the workforce and meet the meet the demand of our state's employers."
For more information about job vacancies in Minnesota, click here.