During the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 Economic Summit on Dec. 2, the results of a recent survey of local businesses found that the top challenge for 2021 and the top concerns about 2022 are hiring, employee costs and employee retention. While the pandemic exacerbated the labor shortage, experts from the University of Minnesota Extension and local business panelists all commented that the workforce issues started long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. Senior economic impact analyst Bridget Tuck told the crowd at the summit that southeast Minnesota had 21,000 job openings in the third quarter and only 11,000 job seekers.