Economic Indicators

Since 2010, the U.S. economy has experienced some dramatic swings. The decade began in a slow recovery from a very deep recession during which unemployment topped 9%.  Unemployment consistently declined from 2010 to 2019, when unemployment was only 3.7%.  In 2020, jobs experienced a major decline brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions in economic activity related to it, but quickly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in the last two years.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the number of manufacturing jobs expanded by 11% between 2010 and 2022, the service sector grew more rapidly (jobs were up 17% over this time period) and it currently accounts for more than 10 times as many jobs (12.8 million manufacturing sector jobs in 2022 vs. 131.4 million in the service sector).

Manufacturing jobs in Minnesota (+10.6%) and Wisconsin (+11.1%) increased at a rate similar to the U.S. average.  In contrast, service sector jobs expanded more slowly than the national average in Minnesota (+10%) and Wisconsin (+7%) between 2010 and 2022.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recovery in Minnesota and Wisconsin has been steady, but slightly trails the national average: manufacturing jobs in Minnesota (+4.7%) and Wisconsin (+4.8%) increased at a slightly lower rate compared to the national average between 2020 and 2022 (+5.4%). Service sector jobs continued to expand more slowly than the national average (+7.6%) in Minnesota (+5.4%) and Wisconsin (+5%) between the same three-year period.

In terms of the St. Croix River Valley counties:

• Unemployment has followed state trends but, surprisingly, most counties had slightly higher rates of unemployment than their respective state in 2022.
• The labor force participation rate has been trending downward, although this trend is not as strong as expected after the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A majority have slightly higher proportions of their workforce employed in the public sector compared to their respective state averages.
• The percent of the workforce employed in manufacturing has expanded in the Wisconsin counties and has been flat in those in Minnesota.
• The percent of the workforce employed in the service sector employment has been flat in these counties. 
• In the last few years, the proportion of the workforce with less than a high school diploma has increased slightly, but is still below the respective state averages for five out of six counties in the region (with the exception of Burnett).