Work, Wages & Weather:
Different Forces Driving Minnesota’s Regional Economies
Regional blogs from across Minnesota highlight a range of economic trends, including cost of living disparities, seasonal employment shifts, demographic changes, sector-specific wage patterns, and job growth slowdowns - offering a data-driven snapshot of how each area is navigating its unique labor market dynamics. For more local information on any of these topics, please reach out to your Regional Analyst!
Residents in Minnesota’s Central regional labor market can face different financial realities depending on the county they live in. The average cost of living for a household in Central Minnesota is about $69k per year for a typical family, consisting of two adults with one full-time worker, one part-time worker and one child. That’s higher than in Southwest ($57k), Northwest ($60k), Northeast ($61k) and Southeast ($63k); but notably lower than the Twin Cities metro, which tops the list at $76.5k annually.
Using DEED's county profiles, we can get a quick understanding of each county’s population and aging trends, educational attainment, industry employment and income. While there is certainly more detailed data that can be found from DEED’s labor market data tools, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Minnesota State Demographic Center and other sources, the profiles offer up an excellent overview of data on population, education, labor force, commuting, income, cost of living, industry employment and more
The third quarter (covering the months of July, August and September) is typically the peak season in Northeast Minnesota for employment levels. The summer months, and the weather that comes with them, represent an increase in business opportunity for many industries. Many industries with relatively higher summer employment belong to the Construction or Leisure & Hospitality sectors, underlining the important role that weather plays in facilitating “the busy season” for those industries.
2024 population estimates were recently released, showing Northwest Minnesota's population increased by 1,366 people – continuing a growth trend driven entirely by people moving into the region rather than natural population increase. The new data shows the migration-driven growth pattern has not only continued, but strengthened in terms of working-age population gains.
The Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) dataset tracks wages and employment by linking job records from Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages with worker demographics from the Census Bureau. It gives you a detailed picture of who's working where and earning what, broken down by characteristics like age, sex, race, industry and location. This blog examines changes in wages by industry, age and sex, and race and ethnicity in Southeast Minnesota.
After three years of steady job growth, economic recovery slowed in Southwest Minnesota in 2024, with the region settling in at just over 173,000 jobs for the second year in a row. While that job count was nearly identical to the 2023 average, it was up by just over 5,800 jobs compared to 2020, but still down almost 3,600 jobs from the 2019 employment level. However, beneath that stability were significant shifts in specific subsectors that helped drive local economic momentum.
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