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Record hot labor market has Minnesota scrambling for workers
ECONOMY
Record hot labor market has Minnesota scrambling for workers
Ice cream scoopers can make $17 an hour, and at least one firm has recruited people from Puerto Rico, in a state with an unemployment rate of 1.8 percent
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
September 4, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
MANKATO, Minn. — A construction company needs workers so badly, they’re flying them in from Puerto Rico and from Texas and paying $20 an hour to install roofs. An online Halloween costume retailer booked hundreds of hotel rooms across the city to house its seasonal workforce.
Welcome to Mankato, Minn., home to one of the tightest labor markets in the nation. The unemployment rate in this metro area of 103,000 is even lower than the state average of 1.8 percent — a record low since federal labor statistics began tracking data, and far below the national average of 3.7 percent.
The U.S. labor market is in its 20th month of eye-popping job creation, as worker shortages, abundant job growth and mass resignations have become a hallmark of the recovery after the pandemic downturn, helping blunt the pain of widespread inflation.
{dsnip}
Minnesota is weathering an extreme version of the tight labor market and low unemployment, which is playing out in fierce battles for workers in manufacturing hubs like Mankato. Jones Metal, a family-owned metal parts factory, is scrambling to hire enough welders to build battery boxes and generators. It pays a starting wage of $23.50 an hour, while trying to automate more jobs to keep the plant running.
{snip}
By Lauren Gurley
Lauren Kaori Gurley is the labor reporter for The Washington Post. She previously covered labor and tech for Vice's Motherboard. Twitter https://twitter.com/laurenkgurley
Record hot labor market has Minnesota scrambling for workers
Ice cream scoopers can make $17 an hour, and at least one firm has recruited people from Puerto Rico, in a state with an unemployment rate of 1.8 percent
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
September 4, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
MANKATO, Minn. — A construction company needs workers so badly, they’re flying them in from Puerto Rico and from Texas and paying $20 an hour to install roofs. An online Halloween costume retailer booked hundreds of hotel rooms across the city to house its seasonal workforce.
Welcome to Mankato, Minn., home to one of the tightest labor markets in the nation. The unemployment rate in this metro area of 103,000 is even lower than the state average of 1.8 percent — a record low since federal labor statistics began tracking data, and far below the national average of 3.7 percent.
The U.S. labor market is in its 20th month of eye-popping job creation, as worker shortages, abundant job growth and mass resignations have become a hallmark of the recovery after the pandemic downturn, helping blunt the pain of widespread inflation.
{dsnip}
Minnesota is weathering an extreme version of the tight labor market and low unemployment, which is playing out in fierce battles for workers in manufacturing hubs like Mankato. Jones Metal, a family-owned metal parts factory, is scrambling to hire enough welders to build battery boxes and generators. It pays a starting wage of $23.50 an hour, while trying to automate more jobs to keep the plant running.
{snip}
By Lauren Gurley
Lauren Kaori Gurley is the labor reporter for The Washington Post. She previously covered labor and tech for Vice's Motherboard. Twitter https://twitter.com/laurenkgurley