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During second quarter 2019, employers reported a total of 146,513 vacancies, up 3 percent from second quarter 2018 (see Figure 1).
These 146,513 vacancies translate into a job vacancy rate of 5.3 percent, or 5.3 job openings per 100 jobs. This rate is up from 5.2 percent one year ago.
Statewide, there were 0.7 unemployed persons for each vacancy, meaning that there are more open positions than unemployed individuals in Minnesota. While this ratio indicates that the labor market is still very tight, it is slightly up from one year ago when there were only 0.6 unemployed person for each vacancy. The reason for this slight uptick is that, although the number of job vacancies continues to increase, the number of unemployed has increased over the year. Table 1 provides historical data.
Number of Job Vacancies |
Number of Vacancies
|
Number of Unemployed
|
|
2nd Quarter 2001 |
115,072 |
4.5 |
0.9 |
4th Quarter 2001 |
79,793 |
3.1 |
1.4 |
2nd Quarter 2002 |
69,715 |
2.8 |
1.9 |
4th Quarter 2002 |
56,166 |
2.2 |
2.0 |
2nd Quarter 2003 |
53,246 |
2.1 |
2.6 |
4th Quarter 2003 |
50,439 |
2.0 |
2.6 |
2nd Quarter 2004 |
66,543 |
2.6 |
2.0 |
4th Quarter 2004 |
51,137 |
2.0 |
2.3 |
2nd Quarter 2005 |
59,513 |
2.3 |
2.0 |
4th Quarter 2005 |
61,554 |
2.4 |
1.8 |
2nd Quarter 2006 |
64,958 |
2.5 |
1.7 |
4th Quarter 2006 |
55,736 |
2.1 |
2.0 |
2nd Quarter 2007 |
62,569 |
2.4 |
2.1 |
4th Quarter 2007 |
50,594 |
1.9 |
2.5 |
2nd Quarter 2008 |
51,722 |
2.0 |
2.9 |
4th Quarter 2008 |
31,066 |
1.2 |
5.5 |
2nd Quarter 2009 |
31,358 |
1.2 |
7.9 |
4th Quarter 2009 |
25,885 |
1.0 |
8.2 |
2nd Quarter 2010 |
41,397 |
1.6 |
4.8 |
4th Quarter 2010 |
33,804 |
1.4 |
5.8 |
2nd Quarter 2011 |
54,670 |
2.2 |
3.6 |
4th Quarter 2011 |
49,890 |
2.0 |
3.2 |
2nd Quarter 2012 |
62,949 |
2.5 |
2.6 |
4th Quarter 2012 |
58,864 |
2.3 |
2.6 |
2nd Quarter 2013 |
72,569 |
2.8 |
2.1 |
4th Quarter 2013 |
60,397 |
2.3 |
2.1 |
2nd Quarter 2014 |
84,696 |
3.3 |
1.6 |
4th Quarter 2014 |
88,927 |
3.4 |
1.1 |
2nd Quarter 2015 |
97,997 |
3.7 |
1.2 |
4th Quarter 2015 |
96,114 |
3.6 |
1.0 |
2nd Quarter 2016 |
97,580 |
3.6 |
1.2 |
4th Quarter 2016 |
97,374 |
3.6 |
1.1 |
2nd Quarter 2017 |
122,929 |
4.5 |
0.9 |
4th Quarter 2017 |
113,774 |
4.2 |
0.8 |
2nd Quarter 2018 |
142,282 |
5.2 |
0.6 |
4th Quarter 2018 |
136,917 |
4.9 |
0.6 |
2nd Quarter 2019 |
146,513 |
5.3 |
0.7 |
Regionally, 86,044 or 58.7 percent of all job vacancies were located in the Twin Cities seven-county area, while the remaining 60,468 vacancies, or 41.3 percent, were located in Greater Minnesota. Compared to one year ago, the number of job vacancies increased by 4.8 percent in the Twin Cities and 0.4 percent in Greater Minnesota.
The Twin Cities’ job vacancy rate was 5.0 percent and Greater Minnesota’s was 5.8 percent. The Twin Cities had 0.6 job seekers for each vacancy and Greater Minnesota had 0.8 job seekers for each vacancy.
Statewide, the Health Care & Social Assistance industry had the most job vacancies, followed by Accommodation & Food Service, Retail Trade and Manufacturing (see Figure 2).
By occupational group, Food Preparation & Serving had the most job vacancies followed by the Sales & Related, Transportation & Material Moving, Office & Administrative Support, and Personal Care & Service occupational groups.
The occupations with the most job vacancies during second quarter 2019 were Retail Salespersons with 7,811 vacancies, Combined Food Preparation & Serving Workers with 7,186 vacancies and Personal Care Aides with 6,181 vacancies.
By size, firms with 1 to 9 employees had the highest job vacancy rate at 8.4 percent, followed by firms with 10 to 49 employees at 7.8 percent. The largest firms, those with 250 or more employees, had the lowest vacancy rate at 2.8 percent. These large firms also had the lowest share of part-time vacancies (31 percent of vacancies) and the highest median wage offer ($19.79 per hour) and were the most likely to offer health insurance (74 percent of vacancies).
Along with the number of vacancies, employers also report on the characteristics of their job vacancies. Some key characteristics of second quarter 2019 Minnesota job vacancies are as follows:
Some of the most notable one and five year changes in the number of vacancies and wage offers are listed below.
Median wage offers:
Number of job vacancies:
Jobseekers and employers want to know who is hiring and for what fields of work. Job vacancy counts alone are not a complete picture of labor market demand since larger occupations tend to have higher numbers of vacancies.
Occupations in Demand (OID) provides a ranked list of occupations currently in demand, along with links to occupational descriptions, wages and programs of study. Lists are available for Minnesota as well as the six Planning Regions. These lists use measures of demand from Job Vacancy Survey statistics as well as other sources of data including Unemployment Insurance claimants and Occupational Employment Statistics.
Employers provide information on their job vacancies twice a year to enable us to estimate hiring demand and job vacancy characteristics by industry, occupation and firm size in Minnesota. The information is gathered through a survey of about 10,000 firms stratified by 13 regions of the state, 20 industry sectors, and 4 size classes.
These data provide job seekers and counselors with information on occupations showing hiring demand within their region. The information also helps employment, training and education providers understand current labor market conditions in their region and tailor services to better meet customer and employer needs. Finally, the data provides a leading labor market indicator.