Minnesota Gained 3,800 Jobs Last Month, Didn't Lose 8,000 In Jan.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- State employment officials say Minnesota gained nearly 4,000 jobs last month.
The Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced Thursday that 3,800 jobs were picked up by Minnesota employers in February, with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 4 percent.
February was the seventh month in a row where the unemployment rate held steady at that level. The national unemployment rate is slightly higher, at 4.7 percent.
DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy say's the February job numbers are a good sign the state's economy is on the right track.
"Businesses are adding jobs and people are finding work in growing industries like construction and education and health services," Hardy said, in a news release.
In addition to the jobs added in February, DEED also said that January's job loss numbers were overestimated.
Initially, DEED said that 8,300 Minnesota jobs were shed in the first month of 2017. On Thursday, however, the number was revised – and basically cut in half -- to 3,900 jobs lost.
Over the past year, Minnesota has gained more than 39,000 jobs, DEED says.
The state's job growth rate is at 1.4 percent. That's slightly lower than the national growth rate, which is at 1.7 percent.
