Minnesota’s Job Growth Remains Sluggish
St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was steady last month even though the state’s economy added nearly 4,000 jobs.
The latest jobs report from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development put the jobless rate for February at 4-percent, which matched the rate from January, but was up a tenth of a point when compared to February 2016. The job gains for February were estimated at 3800. The state has also revised the estimated job losses in January downward from 8300 to around 3900. That pegs the state’s year-over-year net gain in jobs at about 39,500 for a job growth rate of 1.4-percent. By comparison, the national job growth rate for the same 12 month period was 1.7-percent.
The largest job gains last month were in the trade, transportation and utilities sectors at about 5700, while the construction sector added about 4500 jobs and the manufacturing sector saw a net gain of about 1100 jobs.
Those gains were offset by a drop of over 3000 jobs in the professional and business services sector, the loss of 2800 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector and 2400 jobs in the government sector.
The year-over-year job gains enjoyed by the Rochester area’s economy for much of the last year largely evaporated at the beginning of the year. The updated statistics show the Rochester area has seen a net gain of only about 900 jobs during the past 12 months for a job growth rate below 1-percent. In December, the Rochester area’s 12-month job growth rate was estimated at 2.7-percent due to a net gain of about 3000 jobs.