Record Rise in Regional Job Vacancies By Cameron Macht, Minnesota Employment and Economic Development (Permission to reprint) The tight labor market that Minnesota employers had been experiencing up until the pandemic recession returned to a much greater extent in the second quarter of 2021, with the state setting a record for the number of job vacancies while the number of unemployed jobseekers dropped back to pre-pandemic levels. Employers reported 205,714 job vacancies, which was an 84% increase from the second quarter of 2020 at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic and up 40% compared to the second quarter of 2019, which was the previous record high. With more than 205,000 vacancies and less than 125,000 unemployed workers, the state’s jobseeker-per-vacancy ratio dropped back to 0.6-to-1, meaning there were again more jobs available than workers available to fill them. That has been the case in Minnesota in four of the past five years, with vacancies steadily increasing without enough workers to fill the open jobs (see Figure 1). These 205,714 vacancies translate into a job vacancy rate of 8.0% or 8 job openings per 100 filled jobs. This is the highest rate on record and is double from 4.0% one year
ago. It is also unique in comparison to past recessions, when unemployed job seekers typically outnumbered job openings as the economy recovered more slowly and hiring demand took longer to recover. For example, the job vacancy rate hovered between 1.0% and 2.5% from the fourth quarter of 2006 until the fourth quarter of 2012.
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Regional Findings Vacancies were up statewide as many employers were poised to grow but struggled to find workers. Compared to one year ago, the number of job vacancies surged 87.9% in Greater Minnesota and climbed by 81.4% in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area.
