MN Loses 4200 Jobs in July

Minnesota’s economy lost 4200 jobs in July, led by a record-setting drop in the education and health services sectors.  The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development ( DEED ) says the 5300 loss of jobs in those two sectors was driven by cuts in private education.  It was the largest monthly drop for those sectors on record.

DEED also announced today the June employment report was modified to reflect 3600 fewer jobs.

The state unemployment report for July was 4 ½ percent, the same as in June.

DEED says more than 63,000 jobs have been added to the state’s economy over the past 12 months for a growth rate of 2.5 percent.  The growth rate for the Rochester area during the same time period was 1 percent.

The sectors that added jobs in July were trade, transportation and utilities (up 1,600), manufacturing (up 700), leisure and hospitality (up 600), and other services (up 200). Logging and mining, and professional and business services held steady.

The following sectors lost jobs in July: education and health services (down 5,300), information (down 1,000), construction (down 700), financial activities (down 200) and government (down 100).

Over the past year, sectors that added jobs were government (up 21,513), professional and business services (up 11,667), manufacturing (up 9,505), education and health services (up 9,023), construction (up 8,260), trade, transportation and utilities (up 5,658), leisure and hospitality (up 4,456), and logging and mining (up 636).

Financial activities (down 1,152), other services (down 860) and information (down 362) lost jobs in the past year.

In the Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the following regions gained jobs in the past 12 months: St. Cloud MSA (up 2.8 percent), Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA (up 2.6 percent), Mankato MSA (up 2.4 percent), Rochester MSA (up 1 percent) and Duluth-Superior MSA (up 0.9 percent).