Being First Might Not Be the Best?

Check it out: Minnesota landed a 2.1% unemployment rate this past October, putting us in first place in the U.S. But it gets weird because our state workforce is smaller than it was before the pandemic hit. What’s going on here?

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Here’s Five Fast Facts About Minnesota’s Employment Numbers:

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1. 📊 G.O.A.T. - We’ve been on top since June, when we hit the lowest unemployment rate in the history of our state. That’s 1.8% if you’re keeping score.
2. 📉 Less Is More - We have 90,000 fewer people in our workforce than in early 2020, meaning we’re on top because available workers are leaving the workforce altogether.
3. ✌️ Peace Out - Experts say this is partly due to a large chunk of workers throwing in the towel and retiring thanks to the chaos caused by the pandemic.
4. 🏠 Stay Home - Lack of available and affordable childcare and eldercare is also a big issue. It’s forcing people to stay home with their family members because they have no other option.
5. 👐 Outreach - To compensate, the state has encouraged employers to hire people with disabilities and from other marginalized communities. It put a heavy focus on this earlier this year during what it called the Summer of Jobs.

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🔥Bottom line: It’s great that we’re on top but it seems it’s because of a small cheat. It leads to an odd situation: What does a state do when it runs out of available workers? Do they have to start recruiting elsewhere? Do they raise pay and benefits above what existing employees make? Do those efforts cause prices to increase? We’re in uncharted territory here and employers may have to make things up as they go and risk internal chaos.

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What do you think about the numbers?

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