Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at four percent in September, while the year over year change lags behind the United States as a whole.
Figures released Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development report that Minnesota added 1,900 jobs in September. The United States’ seasonally adjusted unemployment fell from five percent to 4.9 while Minnesota held steady at four.
The year-over-year job growth in Minnesota is also outstripped by the nation as a whole. While employment in Minnesota has increased by 1.4 percent (about 41,000 jobs) the U.S. as a whole saw a 1.7 percent increase.
“September marks seven years since employment levels in Minnesota bottomed out during the recession,” said DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy in a statement, “Since then, the state has added 278,000 jobs.”
Three sectors in Minnesota saw negative job growth in the past year. Logging and Mining saw saw 950 jobs lost (nearly 14 percent of the total,) manufacturing lost 537 jobs, and Information lost 977 jobs. Construction was the strongest sector of growth in Minnesota, at 4.9 percent, beating out U.S. growth in that field as well. The only other field Minnesota outperformed the nation in was manufacturing, as the U.S. as a whole saw an 0.5 percent loss in the field.
In the past year three of Minnesota’s five major metropolitan areas saw significant growth. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington saw total employment increase by two percent, St. Cloud increased by 2.8, while Rochester added 3.7 percent. Duluth saw no significant change over the past 12 months, while Mankato’s total employment decreased by 0.2 percent.
