Rochester Area Jobless Rate Above 2% For First Time in 9 Months

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - Seasonal factors helped push unemployment rates higher across the region in December and Olmsted County recorded a jobless rate above 2% for the first time in 9 months.

The latest jobs data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows the unemployment rate for the Rochester area rose from 1.6% in November to 2.2% last month. The rate matched the jobless rate from March of last year. It was also only a tenth of a percentage point higher than the unemployment rate for last December which was the lowest the rate had been in the month of December in Olmsted County since 1999.

Olmsted County's jobless rate was the lowest in the region, where every county saw their unemployment rates move higher in December. The highest jobless rate reported in southeastern Minnesota was 3.1% in Fillmore County, which was tied with Houston County where the unemployment rate also increased by 1.3 percentage points from November.