WILLMAR—The world and its workforce have changed dramatically over the past several years and employers need to change right along with them. That was the overall message at the Workforce Solutions Summit held Thursday in Willmar.

Sponsored and produced by a partnership of several regional economic development and community organizations, the summit brought dozens from the surrounding business area to the Willmar Community (sic) Center. There were presentations on labor market trends, diversifying and creating more inclusive workforces, and also on how to face the growing challenges of finding and keeping employees.

Labor in numbers

Luke Greiner, regional labor market analyst from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, shared employment data from the last couple of years both at the state level and in Kandiyohi County . He didn’t hide the fact that there wasn’t a lot of good news or trends, at least in the short term, in regard to the available labor pool. He said many of the job sectors — health care, education, food service and retail — are still trying to replace the workers they cut or lost in the early days of the pandemic on top of adding more positions to meet demand.

Read the full article by the West Central Tribune.