Job market volatile in rural Minnesota

Teachers in

low demand;

production workers

in short supply

By KREMENA TODOROVA

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The job market in rural Minnesota has been unstable during 2004, according to a September survey by the state Labor Market Information Office publicized this week.

Hiring has been slack in management, professional and administrative support occupations, while signs of recovery have been evident in blue-collar fields hard hit by the recession.

In nine fields, unemployment rates exceed job vacancy rates by at least than 2 percent, the survey says.

"The difference suggests a difficult, competitive market for jobseekers in these fields," the survey says. "Several of these are management, professional, or administrative support occupations -- fields that have been highly competitive due to slack hiring."

The list of high unemployment fields has been volatile, with unemployment and job vacancy rates moving substantially in several fields, the survey also says. Teachers, instructors and entertainment attendants have joined the low-demand list -- while assemblers, fabricators, metal workers, plastic production workers and woodworkers have dropped off, with some even appearing on a list of "hot jobs."

At the opposite end of the spectrum,13 fields report high levels of hiring demand. For these "hot jobs," vacancy rates exceeded unemployment rates by more than 3 percent. In rural Minnesota, several healthcare and food service fields remain "hot." Some of these fields may have spot shortages of workers, and conditions may be advantageous for jobseekers interested in them, according to the survey.

Like the list of low-demand fields, the list of high-demand jobs has also changed over the past few months. Healthcare support workers and some production worker specialties have joined the high-demand list. In contrast, financial specialists, social services professions and K-12, special education and other teachers have dropped off. "Sadly, hiring freezes and cuts have cooled alarm over a supposed teacher shortage; a teacher shortage may develop at some point, but not this year," the study adds.

The study takes its unemployment numbers from insured unemployment statistics. The authors acknowledge that insured unemployment is "a highly imperfect and incomplete" indicator of unemployment, since it misses unemployed or otherwise available workers who have not filed for benefits. But it is nevertheless "the only regularly updated, current, occupation-specific indicator" of unemployment, they say.

"With this in mind, the analysis presented still allows a sufficiently reliable market assessment --not a definitive determination of competitiveness, but a relative clustering of occupations and identification of the extreme cases," the study says.

The nine fields of high unemployment are: advertising, marketing, PR and sales managers; operations specialists managers; other management occupations; architects, surveyors and cartographers; teachers and instructors; entertainers, performers and related workers; material recording, scheduling, dispatching and distributing workers; secretaries and administrative assistants; and material moving workers.

The 13 hot job fields are: health diagnosing and treating practitioners; health technologists and technicians; nursing, psychiatric and home health aides; other healthcare support occupations; cooks and food preparation workers; food and beverage serving workers; other food preparation and serving related workers; grounds maintenance workers; entertainment attendants and related workers; personal appearance workers; sales representatives, services metal workers and plastic workers; and woodworkers.