The local labor market has been a constant topic of conversation lately, with many businesses struggling to find workers to fill open positions. We at the BBER decided to examine trends in job postings over the past year to see which businesses are hiring, what positions are in greatest demand, and whether these needs have changed dramatically in the past year.
Between August 2020 and August 2021, the seven-county Arrowhead region (Aitkin, Carlton, Cook Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, and St. Louis counties) saw 65,355 unique job postings. The number of postings increased steadily between September 2020 and February of 2021, peaking at 13,421 for that month. Since February, the number of postings has remained relatively steady, at around 13,000 postings each month.
Essentia Health was the company with the most unique job postings by far, posting nearly 4,000 unique job openings in the past year. Other top companies included U.S. Express Inc. (a truck transportation firm) and Anthem Inc. (a health benefits company), with 951 and 686 unique postings respectively. It is interesting to note these three companies combined represented nearly one-quarter of the total unique job postings in the past year. By comparison, the majority of companies listed had between 100-200 postings in the past year.
Truck drivers was, by far, the most in-demand job in the region over the past year, with 9,728 unique postings for that occupation alone since August 2020. Postings for registered nurses (the second-most in-demand occupation) totaled 5,276, followed by physicians at 1,845 positions posted. While truck drivers was the top-posted occupation during the period from August 2020-August 2021, demand for that occupation actually declined by 63% between August 2019 and August 2020, whereas registered nurses saw an 84% increase in the same time frame.
The top three occupations that saw the highest growth in the number of postings from August 2020 to August 2021 were passenger vehicle drivers, human resource workers, and tellers with 359%, 339%, and 264% growth respectively.
Not surprisingly, of the in-demand occupations, Physicians earn the most, with a median hourly wage of $95.96. The median hourly wage for Registered Nurses was $34.88, and for truck drivers was $22.35. Of the top ten occupations with the most unique postings in the past year, Retail Salespersons had the lowest median hourly earnings, at $12.60, followed by Home Health and Personal Care Aides at $12.90.
The top ten most common skills listed in local job postings in August 2021 are shown in the table below. Communications, customer service, management, and sales were the four skills mentioned most frequently in local job postings. Interestingly, communications and customer service were consistently listed as the two most in-demand skills throughout the year. Compared to the skills most-desired in August 2020, "planning" and "nursing" replaced "Commercial Driver's License" and "Merchandising" on the top ten list.
