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Two comparisons, both shown. The national basis ranks Watonwan County against every scored U.S. county — its percentile band above is a relative national standing, not a condition. The in-state basis ranks it against Minnesota's other counties (rank and percentile only — bands aren't meaningful within a single state). A county can stand out in its own state while sitting mid-pack nationally. Neither is a forecast.

Pillar breakdown — national percentile ranks

What this means for Watonwan County

Watonwan County scores 51.6 on the national CAERI basis — 1354th of 3,142 scored U.S. counties, placing it in the 50th–75th band nationally by percentile, with a medium-confidence rating. Within Minnesota it ranks 24th of 87 counties (73th in-state percentile). The score summarizes how concentrated local employment is in AI-exposed occupations against the economy's measured capacity to adapt; these are relative-standing bands, not a projection of local job change.

Direct occupational exposure stands at the 41st national percentile. The largest concentrations of locally estimated employment in high-exposure occupations are office clerks, general, secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, elementary school teachers, except special education. The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers under 25 is 13% — well above the state median of 10%; research on AI-era payrolls finds early-career roles in exposed work are where hiring patterns shift first, so this share indicates how soon exposure could be felt, not how large it is.

The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers 55 and over is 32% (above the state median) — a higher share historically means slower workforce adjustment when industries restructure. Fiscal sensitivity ranks at the 23rd state percentile. In Minnesota the transmission runs through the property-tax base — commercial-industrial property is taxed at higher classification rates than homesteads, so softness in commercial values shifts levy burden or squeezes capacity — and through state aid, 34% of general revenue here (well above the state median): Local Government Aid is financed from the state general fund and moves with statewide economic conditions, not only local ones. Local-option sales taxes are a minimal share of revenue here, leaving property values and state aid as the channels that matter. Minnesota local governments levy no local income tax. All county occupation figures on this page are model-based ESTIMATES with the confidence rating shown above.

Largest locally-estimated employment in high-exposure occupations

Across all 185 high-exposure occupations (top quartile of ensemble exposure) with estimated local employment, Watonwan County has an estimated 908 jobs — 19.9% of county employment — carrying an estimated $58M annual wage bill in high-exposure work. The five largest:

Age structure of exposed-industry employment

Cite this page

Machine-readable: this county's JSON · national dataset download and data dictionary on the methodology page.

Nearby and comparable counties

Clay Co., MN (in state)Washington Co., MN (in state)Wright Co., MN (in state)Trousdale Co., TN (similar score)Amherst Co., VA (similar score)Sherman Co., KS (similar score)

Links point to the economically nearest counties (in-state, and similar national score). County-level geographic adjacency is not part of the public reference data, so proximity here is by rank, not by shared border.

Sources & provenance