GF Business News: Jobs…coffee shops & Uber drivers

Another month, another solid gain for America’s job market. The pace of hiring by businesses and government agencies in June — 209,000 added jobs — was the smallest monthly gain in 2 1/2 years. Yet it was still a healthy increase, enough to reduce the unemployment rate from 3.7% to 3.6%, barely above a half-century low.

North Dakota’s Labor Market Information Center has released the latest Online Job Openings Report (OJOR) for June.    North Dakota had a total of 13,965 open and available online jobs in June 2023, a change of -7.3 percent (-1,096) from the prior month and -22.9 percent (-4,148) from the same month one year ago.  The 1,466 openings in Grand Forks County is down 180 from one year ago.

Minnesota business services firms are cautiously optimistic about the workforce shortage and inflation easing in the coming year, according to a survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the Federal Reserve Bank.  The random survey of 229 Minnesota business services firms show 68% believe labor availability will stay the same…7% think it will go up…and 25% think it will go down.  To attract workers, 53% of respondents anticipate increasing wages by at least 3%.

Recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) suggests North Dakota leads the nation in the growth of earnings and gross domestic product.  North Dakota experienced the highest growth in real GDP among all 50 states in the first quarter of 2023 at 12.4%.  North Dakota also led the nation in earnings at 12.4%.  Personal income increased at an annualized rate of 11%, ranking North Dakota third behind Maine (11.4%) and Nebraska (11.1%).

Seventeen percent of adults feel the housing market will never return to stable, affordable levels. Home affordability is so out of reach right now that two out of five Americans think they’d need to win the lottery to become homeowners. That’s according to a recent survey of 2,000 current non-homeowners.

A new coffee and tea shop is making its way to Grand Forks.  The City of Grand Forks has issued a building permit for Sweetwater Coffee on the 1800 block of 47th Avenue South.  The fit-up price-tag is put at $150,000 dollars.  A Facebook post says the location will be opening soon.

Delta remains the dominant air carrier in North Dakota.  The latest report from the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission suggests Delta accounted for 41% of the flights statewide carrying 37,839 passengers in May.  United was second with 29% of the load and 26,660 boardings.  Allegiant came in third with 18% followed by American at 10% and Frontier at 2%.  Of the 1,480 scheduled flights – there were only 8 cancellations during the month.

Minnesota Uber drivers tend to make a better wage when prioritizing trips since they serve a larger customer pool. Their hourly mean wage is $16.71, which may sound low, but Minnesota’s living wage is $36,900 per year, so the $40,100 the average Uber driver makes is well above that line. Not surprisingly, there aren’t as many drivers in Minnesota competing for the rides, so every driver has the opportunity to make more money.  Nevada has 98% more drivers than Minnesota.

UND Aerospace is among a small group of collegiate aviation institutions that has made the switch to unleaded aviation fuel.  UL94 is designed to save UND money through reduced aircraft maintenance costs, while functioning as a cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuel.  That switch was completed a few weeks ago with the depletion of the aerospace college’s final gallons of 100 Low Lead fuel called 100LL.

July 2023 officially marks 50 years since the Minnesota Department of Taxation changed its name to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.  The department received more than 6 million payments, issued approximately 3.5 million tax refunds, and collected more than $33 billion in tax revenue in 2021.