By Ellen Bendewald
March 2015
A feature on DEED's MinnesotaWorks.net job bank enables employers to designate job openings as 'military-friendly.'
MinnesotaWorks.net, DEED's no-fee online job bank, has a unique way of helping current and former military service members connect with good-fit employers: the military- friendly job posting. Employers posting their job openings on MinnesotaWorks.net have the option of designating their job "military-friendly" to encourage veterans to apply.1
Job seekers registering on MinnesotaWorks.net are asked whether they have served in the U.S. military. If they answer "yes," then job postings with the military-friendly designation appear at the top of their job search results. Similarly, the resumes of veteran job seekers automatically appear at the top of employers' resume search results.
This article is a first look at trends in military-friendly job postings. The military-friendly designation was available to employers starting in late February 2012; the data used in this analysis come from all military-friendly and general job postings between March 2012 and December 2014. Military-friendly postings represent a small but growing share of all job postings. While holding steady at 4 to 6 percent from March 2012 through December 2013, the military-friendly share of total job postings climbed to nearly one-fifth (19 percent) by December 2014 (see Figure 1).
What kinds of jobs are represented by military-friendly job openings? Unsurprisingly, military-specific and protective service occupations have the highest share of military-friendly jobs (see Table 1). The most common occupations for military-friendly job openings are in production, office and administrative support, and transportation and material moving (see Figure 2, where the size of the bubble corresponds to the number of military-friendly job openings). All three of these occupational groups tend to offer a starting wage of $12 per hour. Although they represent fewer job openings, health care practitioner and legal occupations tend to offer the highest starting wages of between $16 and $18 per hour.
| Occupations Associated with Military-Friendly Job Openings Posted to MinnesotaWorks.net, March 2012 to December 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major Occupational Group of Job Opening | General Job Openings | Military-Friendly Openings | % Military-Friendly Openings | Median Starting Wage of Military-Friendly Job Openings * |
| Military Specific | 298 | 1,082 | 78.4% | N/A |
| Protective Service | 6,122 | 2,314 | 27.4% | $10.00 |
| Construction and Extraction | 32,841 | 3,990 | 10.8% | $12.34 |
| Transportation and Material Moving | 66,437 | 7,547 | 10.2% | $12.00 |
| Health Care Support | 33,906 | 2,808 | 7.6% | $10.05 |
| Sales and Related | 66,021 | 5,402 | 7.6% | $10.00 |
| Community and Social Services | 20,057 | 1,641 | 7.6% | $12.89 |
| Health Care Practitioners and Technical | 51,504 | 4,025 | 7.2% | $16.84 |
| Computer and Mathematical | 27,118 | 2,098 | 7.2% | $12.48 |
| Management | 33,179 | 2,525 | 7.1% | $11.76 |
| Farming, Fishing and Forestry | 7,654 | 540 | 6.6% | $10.00 |
| Installation, Maintenance and Repair | 49,239 | 3,464 | 6.6% | $14.00 |
| Business and Financial Operations | 30,621 | 2,111 | 6.4% | $11.85 |
| Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media | 7,930 | 539 | 6.4% | $14.90 |
| Office and Administrative Support | 139,351 | 9,176 | 6.2% | $11.85 |
| Production | 204,401 | 12,437 | 5.7% | $11.75 |
| Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 39,987 | 2,409 | 5.7% | $11.00 |
| Occupation Unknown | 28,639 | 1,653 | 5.5% | $10.50 |
| Life, Physical and Social Science | 4,919 | 273 | 5.3% | $13.00 |
| Architecture and Engineering | 28,765 | 1,317 | 4.4% | $14.00 |
| Education, Training and Library | 17,271 | 730 | 4.1% | $9.71 |
| Food Preparation and Serving Related | 41,948 | 1,647 | 3.8% | $9.70 |
| Legal | 1,020 | 40 | 3.8% | N/A |
| Personal Care and Service | 64,712 | 1,038 | 1.6% | $10.05 |
| * Salary information is not required when posting a job on MinnesotaWorks.net; 29 percent of job openings are associated with a salary. N/A means fewer than 10 job postings contained this salary information. | ||||
| Source: MinnesotaWorks.net | ||||
Employers in the public administration, construction and transportation industries are most likely to post their job openings as military-friendly (see Table 2). But as with general job openings, the bulk of military-friendly job openings are with employers in the administrative support, waste management and remediation industry, which includes staffing agencies (see Figure 3). Health care and manufacturing round out the top three industries in terms of number of openings posted, with manufacturing offering the highest starting wages of the three. Overall, jobs in the public administration industry tend to offer the highest starting wages, followed by the utilities, construction and arts, entertainment and recreation industries.
| Employer Industries Associated with Military-Friendly Job Openings Posted to MinnesotaWorks.net, March 2012 to December 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Sector of Job Opening | General Job Openings | Military-Friendly Openings | % Military-Friendly Openings | Median Starting Wage of
Military-Friendly Job Openings* |
| Public Administration | 12,291 | 3,379 | 21.6% | $15.94 |
| Construction | 15,540 | 3,938 | 20.2% | $14.00 |
| Transportation and Warehousing | 28,438 | 4,445 | 13.5% | $12.38 |
| Real Estate, Rental and Leasing | 6,844 | 885 | 11.5% | $9.00 |
| Wholesale Trade | 29,295 | 3,702 | 11.2% | $12.00 |
| Utilities | 3,229 | 357 | 10.0% | $14.50 |
| Manufacturing | 76,531 | 8,323 | 9.8% | $12.60 |
| Mining | 1,043 | 103 | 9.0% | N/A |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 11,239 | 1,097 | 8.9% | $13.00 |
| Retail Trade | 46,559 | 3,512 | 7.0% | $8.50 |
| Finance and Insurance | 30,231 | 2,099 | 6.5% | $11.52 |
| Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting | 6,991 | 471 | 6.3% | $11.50 |
| Health Care and Social Assistance | 172,073 | 11,268 | 6.1% | $10.00 |
| Educational Services | 16,565 | 1,027 | 5.8% | $13.31 |
| Professional, Scientific and Technical Services | 32,191 | 1,819 | 5.3% | $13.00 |
| Information | 12,653 | 695 | 5.2% | $12.25 |
| Industry Unknown | 27,966 | 1,445 | 4.9% | $14.90 |
| Administrative Support, Waste Management, Remediation | 392,747 | 19,654 | 4.8% | $11.25 |
| Accommodation and Food Services | 32,254 | 1,398 | 4.2% | $9.50 |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) | 38,346 | 993 | 2.5% | $12.00 |
| Arts, Entertainment and Recreation | 10,909 | 194 | 1.7% | $14.00 |
| * Salary information is not required when posting a job on MinnesotaWorks.net; 29 percent of job openings are associated with a salary. N/A means fewer than 10 job postings contained this salary information. | ||||
| Source: MinnesotaWorks.net | ||||
The public administration industry is unique as well because the Minnesota Veterans Preference Act gives veterans a limited preference over non-veterans in hiring and promotion for most Minnesota public employment positions. This preference holds true at all levels of public employment, from school districts to counties to state. No other industry has a similar dictate. As these data make clear, though, many other employers wish to recruit veterans to fill their vacancies.
Where are military-friendly jobs located? Hennepin County stands out in Figure 4 for having the most military-friendly job openings of any county, with St. Louis County and the wider Twin Cities metro region also providing significant numbers of openings. This is unsurprising given overall employment levels in these counties.
Figure 5 shows a more patchwork pattern of military-friendly job openings as a share of the total job openings on MinnesotaWorks.net. Here, Goodhue, Houston, Pennington and Watonwan counties all stand out as having relatively high shares (over 20 percent) of military-friendly job openings. Taken together, these four counties do not have a significantly different mix of occupations or industries than the state as a whole. Rather, at the county level, one or two large employers using the military-friendly designation can have an outsized effect in a small pool of jobs.
Although we don't have data on the important question of how many military-friendly job postings result in the successful hiring of a veteran job seeker, or even whether more resumes and applications are solicited from veteran job seekers, the data do suggest that more and more employers are making use of this recruiting tool.
1Job postings on MinnesotaWorks.net are either entered directly by a Minnesota employer or are provided by the national job bank USJobs. Only jobs posted directly by a Minnesota employer have the option for the military-friendly designation, so they are the focus of this article.
