Despite ripples of economic recovery, the northeastern Minnesota job market remains very difficult, according to the latest job vacancy survey from the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The survey found just 1,518 job openings across the entire seven-county Arrowhead region. With roughly 17,600 unemployed workers in the region, that leaves 12 workers competing for every available position. And the jobs those workers are vying for pay a median wage of just $8 an hour.

“Those are not the kind of jobs that will jump-start the economy,” said Kevin Ristau with the JobsNow Coalition. As bad as the jobs figures appear to be, Ristau said he had expected worse. He said a modest return of food service jobs in the region helped improve the jobs-to-worker ratio, even as it reduced the median wage. Most of the new jobs being created are not just low-paying, said Ristau, 53 percent of them are part-time and three-quarters require no education or training beyond high school.

Just two years ago, the ratio of job seekers to job openings in Northeast Minnesota was two and a half to one. Since then, job seekers have risen 78 percent while job openings have fallen 61 percent.

Of the six occupational groups with the most job openings in the region, only one offers a median wage higher than $10.01 per hour. Ristau said his organization’s research in northeastern Minnesota, shows that for a family of four with both parents working, each worker must earn $12.07 per hour to meet basic needs.

And the jobs crunch isn’t confined to the Arrowhead. Statewide, about eight workers are now competing for every available job, with a median wage of $10 an hour.

Ristau said the jobs situation paints a troubling picture of the economy as a whole and points to the need for aggressive action to boost employment. His organization is pushing a wage subsidy program, similar to one adopted in Minnesota during the 1980s recession. He said reviving that program, both at the state and national level, would be one of the quickest ways to encourage employers to start hiring again.

He said the Obama administration needs to come to grips with the jobs reality and the likelihood that the economy isn’t going to start producing significant numbers of good-paying jobs anytime soon. He noted that many businesses have trimmed worker’s hours, in addition to layoffs, and that as business begins to pick up, most companies will restore hours for existing workers before creating new positions.