Rochester’s Job Market Booms While Other Cities Lag

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - After a year-end revision report significantly lowered the Rochester area's job reported growth rate for last year, the latest estimates from the state show the local economy remains the strongest in Minnesota.

The latest jobs data released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates that the Rochester area has experienced a net gain of nearly 6400 jobs over the past 12 months. That works out to an annualized job growth rate of 5.2%.

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The Twin Cities economy added more jobs, but that area's job growth rate remained anemic at less than 1%. The report indicates about 14,900 jobs have been added in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area over the past year.

The February report puts the job growth rate for the St. Cloud area at only 3-tenths of a percentage point, while the job growth rate for Duluth was estimated at only a tenth of a percentage point. Mankato's economy performed the worst by losing an estimated 370 jobs for a negative job growth rate.