CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Panel on rural workforce talks need for child care, remote work opportunities

Free Press - 5/17/2022

May 17—MANKATO — Rural areas should offer flexible work environments and more child care options as ways to address workforce shortages coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, said panelists during a discussion on the topics Monday.

The discussion was part of a webinar organized by the Center for Rural Policy and Development focusing on the pandemic's impact on rural Minnesota's economy and workforce. Panelists included a researcher, a state economic analyst and an economic educator, along with Waseca County Administrator Michael Johnson.

Waseca County knows it is about 450 child care slots short of what it needs, Johnson said.

"We're well short and we know that and we hear about that from each of our cities," he said. "We've really been trying to figure out what is the county's role in this."

The county and its communities are working on the issue, he added, including looking into repurposing empty buildings to meet the need.

Child care shortages are commonplace in rural Minnesota communities. A 2018 study into child care needs found southern Minnesota alone needed about 8,600 child care slots to meet demands.

The panel touched on how rural Minnesota has disproportionately lost child care slots in recent years compared to the Twin Cities metro area. This overall shortage of child care options had serious economic ramifications for women during the pandemic, as they often serve as primary caretakers.

Employment among women dropped significantly in rural Minnesota between 2012 and 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Southwest Minnesota, which includes Mankato, had sharp declines during the pandemic.

Child care helps more women access the labor market, said Luke Greiner, a St. Cloud-based regional labor market analyst for Minnesota'sDepartment of Employment and Economic Development, or DEED. Areas that don't have it, along with employers who don't offer flexible telework options, are essentially shutting would-be workers out of the labor market.

Remote work isn't for everybody, he acknowledged, but employers who've offered some level of it since the pandemic began shouldn't forget how useful it can be in a post-pandemic world. It could mean the difference between having to live in the Twin Cities for an in-person job and remaining in or moving to a rural area for remote work.

"It would be foolish to forget all the flexibility we've been able to accomplish through teleworking the last few years," Greiner said.

Southwest Minnesota had the lowest share of advertised jobs allowing telework out of all regions in the state between January and October 2021, according to DEED. Only 2% of advertised jobs in southwest Minnesota allowed telework during the time period, although a region's lower rates could be influenced by it having higher percentages of jobs where remote work isn't possible.

Johnson told the panel that he'll be on the lookout for data on how many people might be moving to Waseca County and other rural areas due to newly available remote work opportunities and lower costs of living. If people know they can work remotely while getting twice as much house for half the cost, he said, Waseca and place like it could benefit.

He noted law enforcement and corrections are Waseca County job types already seeing applicants who seem interested in moving to rural Minnesota from the Twin Cities metro area.

"We've had a number of applicants from our neighbors from the north looking for opportunities here," he said.

Follow Brian Arola @BrianArola

___

(c)2022 The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.)

Visit The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.) at www.mankatofreepress.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.