Where the jobs are(n't)

 

 

"I have a degree in Art History. Can you please help me get a job?"

Earlier this week, there were a few "dust ups" on the internet concerning jobs in Minnesota. Some facts were brought forward, as was some conjecture. It even led to some hard feelings, some hurtful things were said. My feeling on the job market is really quite simple. There are things this Administration, as well as past Administrations, have done to hamper the production of good, well paying jobs. However this metamorphosis in our job market is something that has been going on for decades.

My research is based on information contained in the 2013 Business Information Guide. Some of what I learned was a "no-brainer" - whereas other parts of it was an eye opener. The Information Guide dealt with the top 25 employers in the State of Minnesota. Those top 25 employers cover about 425,000 people statewide.

So what did this exercise reveal to me? For one thing, there are far more than 425,000 employed in this state, so the numbers are not inclusive. However, I do believe they representative to a degree. Next up, is shows how the manufacturing sector continues to shrink, and healthcare continues to grow. For example in the top 25 firms, a bit over 7% were manufacturing, and almost 31% were in healthcare. In addition, one of the manufacturing firms (Metronic) employs almost 2% of all workers listed in the study. Metronic could have gone in either the manufacturing or the healthcare sector.

The "heavy manufacturing" jobs are gone. Have been for awhile. Ford closed up it's St. Paul plant and moved elsewhere. The "old pump" (FMC), that I worked at, is no more. All those big heavy "metal benders" are gone. The manufacturing company my Dad worked at for 40 years - gone. We still have 3M as a manufacturing concern. That is about it for the big manufacturing companies in Minnesota.

The big growth industry in this state (besides healthcare), is government. The total of the 425,000 who are working in the Federal, State or Local government is 25%. If you add in the number of people working for the University of Minnesota and MNSCU, the number is 35%! In other words, for a young person coming out of school, looking for the best chance of being hired, almost 66% of the jobs in the top 25 employers are in government, higher education or healthcare. Those are stone cold facts.

There is one other complicating factor for jobs in Minnesota. Like the nation, our labor participation rate continues to drop. As much as I would like to hang this around some politician's neck, it really boils down to simple demographics. This is from an article printed the local paper in 2013:

So what we have in Minnesota is 365,000 more people who could conceivably be in the workforce than we did in 2003. But only 105,000 more people actually in the workforce.

This is mostly not a symptom of the recent recession and the economy's slow recovery, but rather a symptom of demographics: Minnesota is getting older.

Translation to the above: In Minnesota, we will continue to have a lower than normal unemployment rate. There are jobs here to be had. However, they are jobs which are part of our "new normal". The type of training I had at the University 40 years ago, would be ill suited for the jobs of today. They are primarily service sector jobs. Government jobs. Rather than jobs that provide goods and services, our "new normal" creates jobs that provide services only. And with 25% in government, those jobs produce no revenue.

There it is. I tried to be as accurate as possible without being normative nor discriminating. If someone has different facts than these, I would love to hear them.