16 Jan How Race Impacts the Workforce Shortage

The country is facing a labor shortage as the Baby Boomer population retires and the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area (Blue Earth and Nicollet Counties) is no different. To provide insight on strategies to address this shortage, Greater Mankato Growth conducted a national comparison of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and analyzed workforce engagement. The unique labor force characteristics of our MSA can show areas for improvement and opportunity for enhanced engagement with our diverse populations.The Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area (Blue Earth and Nicollet Counties) have very unique attributes in our workforce.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we rank 364 out of 381 MSAs in the country in terms of percent of workers 16-64 year who worked full-time, year round.