Central Minnesota is a manufacturing stronghold, with several global manufacturing firms operating there.
The region is especially well known for its expertise in food processing, printing, furniture manufacturing, appliances, machinery and heavy equipment manufacturing.
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9/12/2019 2:30:33 PM
Luke Greiner
Declared Manufacturing Month, October is a perfect time to consider the importance of the industry to our communities and consumers across the globe. By far the largest industry that produces a good rather than a service, manufacturing provides more than 42,000 jobs for workers in Central Minnesota. Long considered a key industry to bolster the middle class with good paying jobs, manufacturing continues to be relevant in the region by evolving and specializing.
Playing to the strengths of supply chains, educational programs, and the specialized skills of the current workforce in the region, the top ten most concentrated manufacturing subsectors contain 40 percent of all manufacturing jobs in Central Minnesota. Location quotients are an excellent way to determine what areas of a regional economy have higher or lower than expected employment. A location quotient (LQ) of 1 means there is the same employment concentration in the region as there is statewide. Anything over 1 indicates that there is over-representation, while an LQ of less than 1 means there is a lower concentration in the region than statewide.
The top 10 distinguishing manufacturing sectors in Central Minnesota all have LQs of 2 or higher, meaning they have at least twice the employment concentration as we would expect in the state. Motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing has the highest LQ of 5.9, meaning Central Minnesota has 5.9 times more employment than we would expect for Minnesota. Household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing also have strong concentrations in the region. The 10 manufacturing segments highlighted in Figure 1 help distinguish Central Minnesota from other parts of the state, or make it a bit special (Figure 1).
In addition to high job counts, several of these manufacturing specialties are also high paying, with average annual wages ranging from just over $44,400 in animal slaughtering and processing to nearly $90,000 in industrial machinery manufacturing. In fact, of the 40 manufacturing subsectors with employment in Central Minnesota, 33 of them offered higher than average annual wages for the total of all industries, which was $43,732 in 2018 (Table 1).
Contact Luke Greiner at 320-308-5378.
