About the Services Sector Industry
The Services sector includes the Accommodation & Food Services, Finance & Insurance; Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; Wholesale Trade, Transportation & Warehousing, Retail Trade, Utilities, and Other Services industries.
Featured Careers in Services Sector
In Demand Careers
Several occupations in demand in the Services Sector are expected to see growth in the future as well as demand from replacement openings as existing workers retire. Jobs in the Services Sector are available across the educational spectrum, with some requiring postsecondary education, and others that can be started with a High School Diploma and some on-the-job training.
In 2022, the following 25 occupations were in top demand in Services Sector in Minnesota. Select an occupation to learn more including watch a short video, get more information on wages, daily work activities, education requirements, find jobs, and more.
- Home health and personal care aides
- Retail salespersons
- Cashiers
- Fast food and counter workers
- Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
- Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers
- First-line supervisors of retail sales workers
- Customer service representatives
- Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners
- Stockers and order fillers
- First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers
- Waiters and waitresses
- Maintenance and repair workers, general
- Office clerks, general
- Food preparation workers
- Cooks, restaurant
- Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive
- General and operations managers
- Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, exc. technical and scientific products
- Maids and housekeeping cleaners
- Light truck drivers
- First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers
- Automotive service technicians and mechanics
- Landscaping and groundskeeping workers
- Bartenders
Services Sector Industry Trends
- In 2022, there were just under 86,000 establishments providing almost 1,035,000 jobs in the Services sector, with a payroll of nearly $61.9 billion dollars. That accounted for about 36.3% of total employment in the state, or 1 in every 3 jobs.
- The largest sector was Retail Trade with 281,785 jobs at 17,500 establishments, followed by Accommodation & Food Services, with 216,600 jobs at 12,500 establishments, making them the 3rd and 5th largest employing industries in the state, respectively. In the next tier, Finance & Insurance provides 142,500 jobs at 10,555 firms, Wholesale Trade has 131,500 jobs at 14,880 firms, and Transportation & Warehousing delivers 113,000 jobs at 6,250 establishments. Finally, Other Services offers nearly 87,000 jobs at 19,900 establishments, Arts, Entertainment & Recreation has 49,250 jobs at 3,825 firms, and Utilities is the smallest sector with 13,725 jobs at 525 establishments.
- Average annual wages were just under $60,000 in 2022, which was about $10,000 below the average across all industries, but varied from a low of just over $25,000 in Accommodation & Food Services to a high of more than $120,000 in both Finance & Insurance and Utilities, which were the 2nd and 3rd highest among the 20 main industries in the state.
- In sum, the Services Sector gained more than 33,000 jobs from 2012 to 2022, but was incredibly disrupted by the Pandemic Recession in 2020. Since then, the industry has regained more than 76,600 jobs that were lost in 2020.
- Employers in the Services Sector reported nearly 78,500 job vacancies in 2022, as employers struggled to find workers to fill open jobs. This includes nearly 28,500 vacancies in Retail Trade and almost 26,000 vacancies in Accommodation & Food Services, which are the 2nd and 3rd highest among all industries. In general, a smaller percentage of openings require postsecondary education, and median wage offers were lower than in other industries.
- According to DEED’s long-term projections, the Services Sector is expected to add more than 61,200 jobs over the next decade, a 6.2% rate of growth.
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