Job Vacancy Survey Findings

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During 2025, the number of job vacancies in Minnesota continued to drop year-over-year. Minnesota employers reported a total of 107,384 vacancies, down 10.8% from 2024 (see Figure 1). This decrease in vacancies combined with an increase in unemployment brought the number of unemployed per vacancy above one for the first time since 2020.

Figure 1: Number of Job Vacancies and Number of Unemployed, 2001 to 2025

In 2025, the number of vacancies declined and the number of unemployed individuals increased compared to 2024. With 124,499 unemployed workers statewide in 2025, there were 1.2 unemployed persons for each vacancy, or 12 unemployed individuals for every 10 open positions in Minnesota. This is up from 0.8 in 2024. This is the first time that the number of unemployed has exceeded the number of job vacancies since 2020, the year of the Pandemic Recession.

These 107,384 total vacancies translate into a job vacancy rate of 3.6%, or 3.6 job openings for every 100 filled jobs in the state. This rate is down from 4.3% in 2024 (see Table 1).

Year/Quarter	Number of Job Vacancies	Number of Vacancies per 100 Jobs	Number of Unemployed Workers	Number of Unemployed per Vacancy
2025 Year	107,384	3.6%	124,499	1.2
2024 Year	120,448	4.3%	94,296	0.8
2023 Year	139,059	5.1%	87,215	0.6
2^nd Quarter 2022	184,588	6.9%	72,526	0.4
4^th Quarter 2021	214,071	8.2%	92,924	0.4
2^nd Quarter 2021	205,714	8.0%	123,617	0.6
4^th Quarter 2020	127,314	4.5%	139,978	1.1
2^nd Quarter 2020	111,753	4.0%	299,579	2.7
4^th Quarter 2019	127,550	4.6%	92,692	0.7
2^nd Quarter 2019	146,513	5.3%	93,037	0.6
4^th Quarter 2018	136,917	4.9%	78,905	0.6
2^nd Quarter 2018	142,282	5.2%	88,517	0.6
4^th Quarter 2017	113,774	4.2%	87,578	0.8
2^nd Quarter 2017	122,929	4.5%	108,623	0.9
4^th Quarter 2016	97,374	3.6%	109,090	1.1
2^nd Quarter 2016	97,580	3.6%	112,725	1.2
4^th Quarter 2015	96,114	3.6%	96,263	1.0
2^nd Quarter 2015	97,997	3.7%	114,619	1.2
4^th Quarter 2014	88,927	3.4%	96,358	1.1
2^nd Quarter 2014	84,696	3.3%	165,184	2.0
4^th Quarter 2013	60,397	2.3%	129,253	2.1
2^nd Quarter 2013	72,569	2.8%	154,701	2.1
4^th Quarter 2012	58,864	2.3%	155,506	2.6
2^nd Quarter 2012	62,949	2.5%	162,050	2.6
4^th Quarter 2011	49,890	2.0%	161,292	3.2
2^nd Quarter 2011	54,670	2.2%	198,202	3.6
4^th Quarter 2010	33,804	1.4%	194,897	5.8
2^nd Quarter 2010	41,397	1.6%	200,037	4.8
4^th Quarter 2009	25,885	1.0%	212,282	8.2
2^nd Quarter 2009	31,358	1.2%	246,687	7.9
4^th Quarter 2008	31,066	1.2%	170,252	5.5
2^nd Quarter 2008	51,722	2.0%	147,511	2.9
4^th Quarter 2007	50,594	1.9%	125,999	2.5
2^nd Quarter 2007	62,569	2.4%	131,891	2.1
4^th Quarter 2006	55,736	2.1%	113,744	2.0
2^nd Quarter 2006	64,958	2.5%	109,667	1.7
4^th Quarter 2005	61,554	2.4%	110,911	1.8
2^nd Quarter 2005	59,513	2.3%	116,510	2.0
4^th Quarter 2004	51,137	2.0%	115,407	2.3
2^nd Quarter 2004	66,543	2.6%	130,301	2.0
4^th Quarter 2003	50,439	2.0%	130,390	2.6
2^nd Quarter 2003	53,246	2.1%	140,103	2.6
4^th Quarter 2002	56,166	2.2%	114,581	2.0
2^nd Quarter 2002	69,715	2.8%	132,274	1.9
4^th Quarter 2001	79,793	3.1%	115,216	1.4
2^nd Quarter 2001	115,072	4.5%	105,326	0.9

Regional Findings

Regionally, 58,500 job vacancies, or 54.5% of the statewide total, were located in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area, while the remaining 48,884 vacancies, or 45.5%, were located in Greater Minnesota in 2025. Compared to one year ago, the number of job vacancies decreased by 11.9% in the Twin Cities and 9.5% in Greater Minnesota.

As in past years, the job vacancy rate was higher in Greater Minnesota (4.5%) than in the Twin Cities (3.4%). The Twin Cities had a ratio of 1.1 unemployed persons to every one job vacancy, while Greater Minnesota had a slightly higher ratio at 1.2 unemployed persons to every one job vacancy. Both regions, like the state, now have more unemployed persons than job vacancies.

Findings by Industry, Occupation & Size

Statewide, the Health Care & Social Assistance industry had the most job vacancies with 24,100 vacancies, followed by Retail Trade with 17,200, Accommodation & Food Services with 15,000, Educational Services with 8,400 and Manufacturing with 6,600 vacancies. Combined, those five industries accounted for two-thirds of the total openings in the state (see Figure 2).

Five industries had job vacancy rates above the state’s (3.8%): Other Services at 7.4%, Accommodations & Food Services at 6.5%, Retail Trade at 6.0%, Health Care and Social Assistance at 4.5% and Management of Companies at 4.3%.

Figure 2: Job Vacancies by Industry, 2025

Despite the overall decline, eight industry sectors saw increases in job vacancies over the year, with the largest increases in Other Services, Management of Companies and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing. The remaining 12 industry sectors saw decreases, with the largest drops in Arts, Entertainment and Recreation, Professional and Business Services and Health Care & Social Assistance.

Occupations

By occupational group, Food Preparation & Serving had the most job vacancies with 15,600 postings and a vacancy rate of 6.4%, followed by Sales & Related with 13,300 vacancies and a vacancy rate of 5.3%, Healthcare Practitioners & Technical with 12,600 openings and a vacancy rate of 6.4%.

Figure 3: Job Vacancies by Occupational Group, 2025

The five detailed occupations with the most job vacancies during 2025 were Retail Salespersons with 7,311 openings and a job vacancy rate of 9.8%, Fast Food & Counter Workers with 5,172 openings and a job vacancy rate of 8.8%, Registered Nurses with 3,911 openings, Personal Care Aides with 3,785 openings and First-Line Supervisors of Food Prep & Serving with 2,838 openings.

Firm Size

By size, very small firms with between 1 and 9 employees had the highest job vacancy rate at 7.9%, followed by small firms with 10 to 49 employees at 5.0% and medium firms with 50 to 249 employees at 3.5%. The largest firms, those with 250 or more employees, had the lowest vacancy rate at 2.0%. The highest median wage offer, at $23.80, was found in very small firms.

Characteristics of Job Vacancies

Along with the number of vacancies, employers also report on the characteristics of their job vacancies. Some key characteristics of 2025 Minnesota job vacancies are as follows:

Forty percent are for part-time employment, well up from one year prior. Part-time is defined as fewer than 35 hours per week.
Twelve percent are for temporary or seasonal work, also up from the prior year.
Thirty-four percent require some level of post-secondary education or training beyond a high school diploma. The other 65% of vacancies require no education beyond a high school diploma or equivalent. This is just about the same as last year.
Forty-one percent require one or more years of work experience, also about the same as last year.
Forty-nine percent require a certificate or license, that same as one year ago.

Trends in Wage Offers

The median (50th percentile) wage offer for all job vacancies is $20.95 per hour in 2025, up $0.28 or 1.5% from 2024. As Figure 4 illustrates, wage offers are highly correlated with experience and education requirements.

Figure 4: Vacancies and Median Wage Offers by Education and Experience, 2025

Which Occupations Are in Demand?

Jobseekers and employers want to know who is hiring and for what fields of work. Job vacancy counts alone are not a complete picture of labor market demand since larger occupations tend to have higher numbers of vacancies. Occupations in Demand (OID) provides a ranked list of occupations currently in demand, along with links to occupational descriptions, wages and programs of study. Lists are available for Minnesota as well as the 6 sub-state planning regions. These lists use measures of demand from Job Vacancy Survey statistics as well as other sources of data including Unemployment Insurance claimants and Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics.

What is the Minnesota Job Vacancy Survey?

Employers provide information on their job vacancies twice a year to enable us to estimate hiring demand and job vacancy characteristics by industry, occupation and firm size in Minnesota. The information is gathered through a survey of 6,760 firms stratified by 6 regions of the state, 20 industry sectors, and 4 size classes. This sample is split between the two rounds, second and fourth quarters of each year. The 2025 survey had a response rate of 85% across both rounds.

These data provide job seekers and counselors with information on occupations showing hiring demand within their region. The information also helps employment, training and education providers understand current labor market conditions in their region and tailor services to better meet customer and employer needs. Finally, the data provides a leading labor market indicator.

The 2023 Job Vacancy Survey rolled out a new methodology that divides the sample and data collection across two rounds, second and fourth quarters of the year. The advantages of this methodology are that the time series going back to 2001 is maintained while the annual sample size, and thus the annual data collection and processing effort, is shrunk in half. 2025 continues this methodology with the analysis comparing year of 2025 to year of 2024 and 2023 estimates.