Job Vacancy Survey: Second Quarter, 2009

by Kate Aitchison - kate.aitchison@state.mn.us 
September 2009

The Job Vacancy Survey is a biannual survey of Minnesota employers, gathering information on the number, type, wages offered, and qualifications of job openings across the state. More than 10,000 employers are surveyed to create a representative sample which produces information that can be compiled into planning regions and economic development regions.

The Job Vacancy Survey is a perfect vehicle to examine specialized industry groups where skill requirements are changing. Currently the survey is used to understand better the new and emerging biofuels and wind industries. In the future the survey will be used to understand better changing skill requirements in occupations that are part of the broader clean energy and green technologies industries in Minnesota.

Here is an overview of the most recent findings from the Job Vacancy Survey including a focus on findings specific to the biofuels and wind energy industries.

During the second quarter of 2009, when job loss and unemployment achieved record highs, Minnesota’s economy offered 31,358 jobs to the unemployed. While this was a similar level to that found in the last job vacancy survey during the fourth quarter of 2008, it represents a 39 percent drop in vacancies from a year ago.

While job vacancies have dropped, the number of unemployed people has jumped dramatically with a 62 percent increase in the number of unemployed people from one year ago. With 240,611 people unemployed, there were only 1.3 job vacancies for every 10 unemployed people seeking work during second quarter 2009.

Industry

The majority of industries saw a loss of openings as vacancies dwindled during second quarter 2009. The only industry to experience any growth was administration and support which had approximately 2,300 vacancies, up 13.2 percent from the last survey at the end of 2008. Within the Twin Cities this was also the only industry to experience any growth, while Greater Minnesota saw growth in three separate industries: accommodation and food service, construction, and real estate and rental and leasing.

The industries that suffered the largest comparative losses in job vacancies statewide were agriculture, fishing, forestry, and hunting and mining, both of which saw about a 75 percent decline in vacancies. These two industries were also hard hit in Greater Minnesota, along with the other services industry. In the Twin Cities construction saw the largest decline in vacancies with a 90.4 percent drop from fourth quarter 2008. This drop meant that during second quarter 2009 only 27 vacancies were listed for construction positions in the metro area compared to 502 at the end of 2008.

Occupations

While most occupational categories saw a decline in the number of vacancies, a few groups managed to grow during the second quarter of 2009. Statewide, the largest growth in an occupational group was within personal care and service occupations which saw a 76 percent increase from fourth quarter 2008, with 2,600 vacant positions throughout the state. This occupational category also saw huge growth in Greater Minnesota, up 250 percent or 1,700 vacancies, while it showed minor losses within the Twin Cities seven-county area. Within the Twin Cities the occupational groups that saw the largest growth in vacancies were construction and extraction occupations along with farming, fishing, and forestry occupations.

While it might be confusing that the Twin Cities lost huge numbers of vacancies within the construction industry, yet gained job openings within the construction and extraction occupations, construction and extraction occupations can exist in many different industries. The following is a sample of jobs included within this occupational category: boilermaker, carpet installer, pile-driver operator, electricians, insulation workers, roofers, sheet metal workers, carpenters, and rock splitters. Other industries such as manufacturing, hospitals and other large institutions, and building maintenance hire some of these occupations.

Job Vacancies by Geography

When it comes to identifying where job vacancies are located, the state can be divided several ways. Most notably, the Twin Cities was home to 55 percent of the vacancies during second quarter 2009, while 45 percent of the vacancies were located in Greater Minnesota.

The number of vacancies and the job vacancy rate for planning regions are displayed in Table 1. The vacancy rate compares the number of vacancies in the region with the total number of filled jobs. This comparison provides a way to put the number of vacancies in context of the overall size of the labor market. During second quarter 2009 Northwest Minnesota had both the second highest number of vacancies and the highest vacancy rate statewide.

Job Vacancies by Education and Experience

The experiential and educational requirements of the job vacancies varied little from the results of previous survey rounds:

• More than 50 percent of vacancies required a high school diploma or less, while about one-third of vacancies required a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Forty-four percent of vacancies required some work experience related to the position.
• The percent of jobs requiring post-secondary education increased slightly between fourth quarter 2008 and second quarter 2009 to the highest level on record - 44 percent of all vacancies. This may be a result of the recession as employers who are hiring recognize that they can require higher qualifications than in the past because of the high quality of job seekers in almost every occupation.
• As with educational requirements, the number of vacancies requiring related work experience (in contrast to general work experience or no work experience) increased by 10 percent compared to fourth quarter 2008.

Given the variety of experiential and educational requirements for the vacancies, it is not surprising that median-wage offers also vary across the board. Job vacancies requiring a bachelor’s degree typically start with wages more than twice as high as those vacancies with no educational requirements. Similarly, jobs with higher experiential requirements also show higher median-wage offers than those without work experience requirements (see Figure 1).

Job Vacancies in Renewable Energy Industries

Minnesota is home to some new industries seeking to harvest green energy for Minnesota’s future. In an attempt to identify job opportunities in the fields of biofuels and wind energy, the Labor Market Information Office in partnership with Minnesota’s State Colleges and University system expanded the Job Vacancy Survey. Starting in fourth quarter 2007, data are available for the biofuels industry. Only second quarter 2009 data are currently available for the wind industry. Research into the workforce needs of these industries is ongoing, so the following are initial findings.

Biofuels

Ethanol and biodiesel are the two biofuels produced within Minnesota. Ethanol, a fuel typically produced from corn, is a large export for Minnesota, with 53 percent, roughly 290 million gallons, of the supply exported in 2006. Biodiesel, a fuel derived mainly from soybean oil, is commonly blended with petroleum diesel to produce transportation fuels.

For ethanol and biodiesel firms a total of 73 vacancies were reported between the end of 2007 and mid-2009, an average of approximately 18 vacancies per quarter. Of the 73 total vacancies, 15 vacancies were reported by biodiesel firms, while the remaining 58 were concentrated in the ethanol field. Median salaries hovered around $14 an hour but varied based on the vacant position.

The biofuels vacancies were coded into the Standard Occupational Classification system. Results include:

• Nearly 50 percent of the vacancies were for production occupations. Examples of jobs in this field include: production worker, plant operator, and boiler operator.
• Approximately 21 percent of the vacancies were for maintenance and repair occupations. Examples of jobs in this field include maintenance mechanic and entry-level technician. The remaining 29 percent of vacancies were distributed among the following occupational categories: management, sales and related, office and administrative support, engineering, construction/extraction, and transportation.

Wind

The wind industry is a relatively small industry and is only now beginning to be classified within industrial and occupational coding structures. Firms in the wind industry were selected to be surveyed based on whether or not they hire technicians or mechanics who complete maintenance and repair work on wind turbines. This limited the final population included in the Job Vacancy Survey sample to 14 firms with a total of 16 locations within the state.

During second quarter 2009, employers reported a total of 16 vacancies within these establishments. Five of these vacancies were for management or office administrative support while 11 were for wind turbine technician or mechanical positions.