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Although the federal government shutdown put a lot of data on hold, the most recent numbers released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for the month of September showed the state is adding jobs. But at the same time, the unemployment rate has been steadily ticking up to 3.7 percent, making it a tough go for a lot of people.
Now, unemployed Minnesotans are finding it’s taking longer to find work compared to last year — and job fair attendance has been spiking. That’s according to recent survey work from DEED.
Shoulwin Davis recently attended a job fair in St. Cloud hosted by CareerForce. It's the state's official job search hub.
Davis has participated in several job fairs since being laid off a couple months ago. After a lifetime in manufacturing he says thinking about doing something else is daunting.
"As a person of my age, it's scary, you know, I’ll be 59 years old,” Davis said. “A lot of stuff is scary to me. And for me to help myself out, and for me to not get all [agitated], I go work out a little bit."
Davis said he likes job fairs because they’re basic compared to using a company’s online portal — which, for him, is difficult and time consuming.
“Now, everything has advanced, and everything is more online,” Davis said. “I got to get back to that [basics], and that's why I come here."
He compared himself to a flower while struggling to adapt to the current labor market.
"It has to grow the roots first before it springs up. So me, I'm trying to do this springing up. But then it seems like I can't grow because it's the, well, I don't know that,” Davis said. “And I just have to keep typing away. Like I say: I type like a bird pecking.”
An uphill battle
Davis said he's been on the job hunt for about two months. And Kelly Gerads said that's pretty typical. The workforce development specialist with CareerForce said over the summer, on average, it took job seekers about four to five months to gain employment. And for more specialized jobs, it could be longer.
"So that's kind of where I start when I talk with job seekers,” Gerads said. “This may be an uphill battle, but we need to stay positive, and we need to do some strategizing and try to figure out how we can make this as painless as possible.”
A DEED survey of professionals who work with job seekers found that this summer, when compared to last year, clients were having a tougher time finding a job. Gerads said that could come down to unknowns within the economy.
"I think businesses are being very cautious on what they're hiring and what positions they're prioritizing as they're filling positions,” she said. “I think that those opportunities are there. I think they're just maybe ‘stay-cationing’ them, if you want to call it that, so that they can kind of wait out some of this unknown stuff to see whether or not that's the right move."
Gerads added it's normal for hiring to slow down in the winter months before picking up again in the spring.
That said, Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank, recently reported official employment numbers might be overstating job gains. He said the U.S. might currently be losing 20,000 jobs a month — a key part of why interest rates were cut earlier this year.
Strong spots in the economy
Anderson Trucking Service in St. Cloud continues to add jobs, spurred on by the recent purchase of another business under the same umbrella. Andrew Wanquist is the trucking company's talent acquisition manager.
“It has not slowed for us; we are in a strong position,” he said. “So, even in the tough times, the government shutdown, we’ve been very strong.”
He said each year they attend about 30-40 career fairs around the state. And Wanquist said he's seen an uptick in attendance.
"We've had great turnouts at our college events and our events like this, you know, career force-type events. And we've managed to make hires,” he said. “So, you feel good about talking to people and putting people to work so they can take care of their families."
Minnesota will publish its next update on jobs numbers next week.
Correction (Dec. 16, 2025): The name of the company Andrew Wanquist works for has been corrected. It is Anderson Trucking Service.
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