The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

September 4, 2010

Job vacancies begin to rise in Kato area

Regarded as ‘precondition’ for recovery

By Tim Krohn Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — If you are looking for a job in retail, health care, manufacturing, education or public administration, there are a lot more openings now than there were a year ago in the Mankato region.

But if you’re looking for work in construction, don’t hold your breath.

The state has released results from its Job Vacancy Survey, which surveys employers across the state on how many jobs they have open.

Minnesota employers reported 41,400 job vacancies in the second quarter of 2010, up 32 percent from the same period a year ago

In the local nine county area, there were 1,351 job vacancies in the second quarter of 2010, up 28 percent from a year ago.

The survey was done by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Brent Pearson, regional analyst based in the Mankato DEED office, said the increased job vacancies “is not a sign of a full-blown recovery,” but said a higher number of job vacancies is a precondition for recovery.

“The growth in job vacancies and decrease in number of unemployed people per vacancy is encouraging, but we also want to see substantial job growth.”

The survey showed there were fewer unemployed people chasing open jobs. In the second quarter, the state had 4.8 unemployed people for each vacancy,  compared with 7.9 unemployed people for each job vacancy at the same time last year. In greater Minnesota, the number of unemployed people for each vacancy was higher — 5.4 per job vacancy.

In the Mankato region, the most vacancies were in retail, which are generally part-time and lower paying, while the greatest number of job vacancies statewide were in the higher-paying health care sector.

The local region, however had a higher share of manufacturing job vacancies than the statewide figures.

“While we are still in the early stages of economic recovery, the survey indicates that the job market is beginning to improve statewide,” said Dan McElroy, commissioner of DEED.

McElroy said this is the first decrease in the number of unemployed people per vacancy in Minnesota since the second quarter of 2006.

The most openings were in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, with 58 percent of all state openings.

Firms with 50 or more workers accounted for 61 percent of the job vacancies,  businesses with 10 to 49 workers had 26 percent of the vacancies and those with fewer than 10 workers had 13 percent.

About 42 percent of the job vacancies were for part-time employment, defined as fewer than 35 hours a week. Temporary or seasonal work accounted for 21 percent of the job vacancies.

The full report can be found at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/jvs.

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