Employment data is defined as employment covered by social security and reported by place of work (as opposed to place of residence data used in the census). All employment and earnings data are reported for industries classified by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. The SIC codes are used in the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) to provide a detailed accounting of employment and earnings by industry at the county, state, and national level. Since only social security data is used, individual businesses opting out of the social security system (such as independent loggers) are not included. Also, transportation and agriculture industries tend to be undercounted because employees have their own retirement systems.
The REIS tends to emphasize manufacturing and heavy industry data rather than service industry data. Tourism is captured indirectly through codes for eating and drinking places, hotels and lodging places, and automobile dealers and service stations under the service industry category.
Data disclosure laws are a problem frequently found in county-level data. These laws prevent data from being released that would make it possible to identify a specific business within a geographic area. This results in incomplete or absent data for many industry categories.
Because of the limitations of SIC codes and data availability, only
major industry categories were included in this assessment. These industries
include: agriculture services (includes farming, forestry, and fishing),
construction, government (includes federal, state, local, and military),
manufacturing (includes lumber and wood products), mining (includes metal,
coal, oil and gas extraction, and nonmetallic minerals), trade (includes
wholesale, retail, finance, insurance, and real estate), services (includes
hotels and lodging places), and transportation.
Number of Employees by Major Industry,
1970-1995
[Chart 5]
Source: 1995 U.S. Department of Commerce
Statewide: Employment patterns are similar to the northeast
region. Manufacturing has slightly more employees as a percentage of the
total employment at the state level than in the northeast region, while
in reverse, mining industries have less employees.
Number of Employees by Major Industry,
1970-1995, Northeast Region
[Chart 6]
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
Northeast Region: Service industry employment increased dramatically
between 1970 and 1990, then steadily between 1990B1995.
Trade industries also saw a significant increase in employment between
1970B1980, a decline from 1981B1985,
and a steady increase starting in 1986. Employment in mining industries
experienced a large drop in the early 1980s but has remained at a constant
level since. Agriculture employment, which includes forestry, has remained
fairly constant.
Projected Jobs, 1998-2045
[Chart 7]
Source: 1995 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. Department of Commerce
Statewide: At the state level, 1998B2045
projections show that the service industry will continue to expand and
increase its number of employees. Employment in mining is expected to remain
constant in the same time period.
Top Ten Employers, Northeast Region
[Chart 8]
Source: Research Report: Minnesota Regional Manufacturing/ Technology
Opportunity Assessment, 1996. University of Minnesota-Duluth, Center for
Economic Development
Northeast Region: