Estimating the impact of Minnesota's implementation of summer unemployment insurance for education support staff
| Education occupation category | Number of workers | Occupation share of all education support workers | Expenditure per category* | Share of total expenditures | Share of full-time equivalent workers receiving benefits ** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food service | 7,000 | 12.7% | $4,782,469 | 12.4% | 23.1% |
| Janitor and custodian | 6,800 | 12.3% | $57,958 | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Office and administration | 8,300 | 15.0% | $2,680,910 | 6.9% | 8.8% |
| Paraprofessional | 31,800 | 57.6% | $26,354,835 | 68.3% | 20.2% |
| School bus driver | 1,300 | 2.4% | $2,579,616 | 6.7% | 65.7% |
| Total | 55,200 | 100.0% | $38,604,286 | 100.0% |
Notes: *Education expenditure categories do not add to total because "Other" expenditure is not shown. In Minnesota, the "Other" category cost $2,148,498 (5.5% of total expenditure).
**We assume each worker claiming UI does so for an 11-week summer break. Dividing total UI weeks claimed by 11 produces the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of employees who received UI. The FTE number of employees divided by the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) number of total workers produces the share of FTE workers who received UI benefits.
Source: Worker counts and wage data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics 2023 data. UI expenditure data from MDE 2024.