March 2021 - Minnesota Economic Trends
Our March issue of Trends includes an in-depth feature article exploring how racial and ethnic disparities follow high school graduation in Minnesota, a follow-up article on the early care and education industry with a proposal for a higher pay scale, an introduction to our new Comparing Recessions tool by looking at how industries have fared this year versus the past two recessions, and our updated 4th quarter 2021 forecast. This issue also provides an article examining college instructional program decisions based on Graduate Employment Outcomes, and a brief analysis of the changes in the amount of people who are teleworking - which more than tripled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
How the Deck is Stacked: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Earnings Following High School Graduation in Minnesota
Minnesota has some of the worst racial disparities in the nation, due to consistent and compounding systemic barriers for Minnesotans of color. Few disparities are more consequential than the low earnings potential of youth of color relative to their white peers. The racial wage gap emerges so early in life that it is evident shortly after graduating from high school.
Minnesota Early Care and Education Wage Scale
As a result of low compensation, the early care industry suffers from recruitment and retention challenges that have made it impossible for many programs to meet long-standing staffing requirements that are a part of licensing regulations in Minnesota.
Q4 Jobs Forecast: Robust Growth in Minnesota
Job growth in 2021 is expected to be robust in Minnesota as more people are vaccinated and as dining, recreation and other opportunities expand while official restrictions continue to be eased and people resume more activities.
Popular or Pragmatic: Considering College Instructional Program Decisions
With enrollments fluctuating and student interests changing, Minnesota’s higher education institutions can benefit from better understanding the relationship between the selection of major and the resulting employment outcomes that graduates experience.
The Shape of a Recession
A new DEED data tool underscores how the pandemic recession is different from recent recessions in a number of important ways and how it has had an unprecedented impact on employment in certain industries.
Teleworking During the Pandemic
In 2019, about 190,000 Minnesotans were working from home. But things changed quickly with the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, and by May 2020 over one-third of workers reported that they teleworked, which is the equivalent of more than one million Minnesotans.