St. Paul - October is Manufacturing Month in Minnesota, in recognition of the critical importance of manufacturing to the state's economy and to highlight the many career opportunities in this vital industry. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) partners with the Minnesota State Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence, manufacturers across the state, educators and our workforce development partners to mark this month in a variety of ways.

Manufacturing is one of Minnesota's most important industries:

• Minnesota's 8,500-plus manufacturing firms contributed $58.7 billion to Minnesota's economy last year, making up 13% of the state's GDP.
• Manufacturers employ almost 325,000 people – more than 11% of the state's total employment and second among supersectors.
• Workers took home $24.9 billion last year for an average annual wage of $76,950 – 10% higher than the state's overall private sector wage.

"It's hard to overstate the importance of manufacturers to Minnesota's economy," said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek. "During October and throughout the year, DEED works with state, regional and local organizations to raise awareness about manufacturing employment, promote hiring events and highlight what manufacturers are doing across the state. Soon, DEED and the Governor's Workforce Development Board will add a new tool to our line-up of programs to help manufacturers when we roll out the Drive for 5 initiative, which focuses on five high-demand fields, including manufacturing."

There is high demand for people to work in manufacturing positions in Minnesota, now and into the future, making it a strong career path choice. Minnesota added more than 10,000 manufacturing jobs over the year from 2021 to 2022. With a record high of nearly 19,000 job vacancies in 2022, companies have room to hire even more workers. Going forward, Minnesota is expected to see more than 75,000 job openings for manufacturing production positions alone through 2030, due in large part to retirements of current workers.

Many manufacturing jobs can be started with a high school diploma and employer-provided on-the-job training. In addition, many positions available require a range of educational backgrounds and experience. As more and more manufacturers integrate robotics and other automation into their production processes, a new range of skills are required to install, maintain and operate equipment. The Minnesota Jobs Skills Partnership, housed at DEED, partners with employers and educational institutions to fund such training.

People interested in exploring a career in manufacturing can find information on October's Tour of Manufacturing events, manufacturing hiring events, fact sheets about working in manufacturing, regional labor market information focused on manufacturing and many other resources at CareerForceMN.com/Manufacturing.

DEED is the state's principal economic development agency, promoting business recruitment, expansion and retention, workforce development, international trade and community development. For more information about the agency and its services, visit the DEED website or follow DEED on Twitter. You can view resources to help Minnesotans prepare for and find employment now, including thousands of open positions throughout Minnesota, at CareerForceMN.com.