When a series of retirements collided with fresh demand for specialty drilling equipment last year, Rick Schell had his work cut out for him.
"I could have used 40 more workers," said Schell, who wears two hats as the operations and human resources manager at Badger Foundry in Winona. The factory makes oil-shale fracking equipment for Caterpillar, windmill turbines, air conditioner chillers and engine parts for massive dump trucks.
To get workers fast, Schell turned to the state's online jobs board, which carries the largest number of job listings in Minnesota, state officials say. Schell hired 32 workers through the website, including Jason Kalmes, a dairy farm worker. He has health insurance for the first time in eight years.
"I'm happy I landed here," Kalmes said.
The online jobs site, called MinnesotaWorks.net, clearly shows that Minnesota labor market is improving, state officials say. More than 43,500 job openings are currently posted -- about 33 percent higher than the same period a year ago.
"It's important to get the word out -- we have jobs," said Mark Phillips, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
More than 9,700 employers have used the site to find prospective employees -- from factory workers and software designers to nurses and school bus drivers. Overall, almost 450,000 listings were posted on the site in 2011, an 86 percent increase since 2009.
The website makes hiring easy for employers and job hunters, said Schell, who hired an additional 12 workers from among 250 responding to his post in January.
"In today's business climate, everyone is doing multiple jobs, like me. I don't have the time to take the applications and do the ads, ... so what they are doing for us is a huge help," Schell said.
Using funds from corporate unemployment taxes, the department launched MinnesotaWorks.net in 2007, replacing the modest "job bank" site with a state-of-the-art "intelligent" system that performs one-click matches, keyword searches and automated job coding. It also accepts automated daily job downloads from a national government database called the National Labor Exchange.
Most jobs full time
Julie Toskey, director of the MinnesotaWorks.net, said all but about 3,000 of the jobs on the website are full-time positions. About 47 percent of job seekers who applied were contacted for an interview, she said.
At least 4,831 employers make it clear on the website that they provide 401(k) plans and health insurance, two of the most-coveted employee benefits around, according to the employee benefits research giant Mercer.
"People say that all the jobs out there are only temporary or part time. But no," Toskey said. "Most of the jobs we see are full-time jobs. They do offer 40 hours or work and benefits."
The recent growth of jobs on MinnesotaWorks.net mirrors gains seen across the nation. U.S. job openings rose from 3.1 million in November to 3.4 million in December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. December's openings were up 39 percent from June 2009, the month the recession officially ended. Nationwide, commercial job boards like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are also slowly getting busier as the corporate hiring freeze begins to thaw.
Last year 9,752 employers used MinnesotaWorks.net to advertise job vacancies for free, mostly in business services, manufacturing, and health care and education. That's up from 7,200 employers in 2009. About 93 percent of firms using the state's website have fewer than 500 workers.
Connie Wanberg, a professor of work and organizations at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, said the state's jobs board is a logical and critical tool used regularly at all 46 workforce centers across the state. Successful job seekers consistently schedule online job searches into their day, she added.
Minnesota's unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent December. But total employment in the state only grew 1 percent in 2011, which was slower than the rest of the nation. Minnesota still has 168,500 unemployed people looking for work. Many of them have been jobless for more than half a year.
Twitter feed added
Phillips and other state officials are so excited about the recent online bounty of jobs that they created the accompanying twitter account -- @MinnesotaWorks -- for job seekers and job counselors. The Twitter account features jobs from MinnesotaWorks.net, job search help and career advice.
"Let's use and share [these] tools with job seekers to help them get working again," Phillips said.
Vince Hancock, spokesman for the Denver-based dialysis provider DaVita, said his office uses the site frequently to find new patient care technicians for some of the 50 clinics DaVita has in Minnesota.
For an employer, "there is literally no downside to it because it's a free service that we can use to expand the visibility of our open positions," Hancock said, adding that his hiring needs are likely to grow. "The circle of people on dialysis is constantly growing. So the need to find caregivers to treat those patients is always growing as well."
DaVita makes clear in its postings that it has full-time slots and offers health insurance, profit sharing and other benefits.
MinnesotaWorks.net not only lets employers advertise job openings and competitive benefits, but the system also allows recruiters to view candidates' résumés. Job hunters can post up to five résumés at any one time on the site. And they can search for openings by occupation, geography, shift or by full- or part-time categories.
Laid-off job seekers and the curious have flocked to the site, posting 75,757 active résumés as of Thursday. Job hunters can let any employer view their résumés or they can restrict access to the companies where they have applied.
As for Kalmes, he heard from a neighbor that Badger Foundry might be hiring, so he stopped by the Minnesota Workforce Center in Winona. A worker there led him to a computer, where he could look up Badger's offerings on MinnesotaWorks.net.
"The computer was easy. I went on and it listed all the information I needed to know about the company," Kalmes said. "Then I just applied."
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725