Report: Minn. Added 7,000 Jobs Last Month, Unemployment Hit 8-Year Low
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The last state job report released before Election Day shows that in September Minnesota added 7,200 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent, the lowest it's been in eight years.
To put that in perspective, the national average unemployment rate is at 5.9 percent.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) released the numbers Thursday, saying that it's been exactly five years since the lows of the recession.
"Since then, our state has added 212,800 jobs, enough to put us 53,800 jobs above our pre-recessionary peak," said Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben, in a press release. "With 50 consecutive months of over-the-year job growth, Minnesota's economy is showing signs of consistent, broad-based progress."
For last month's growth, professional and business services led the pack. More than 4,000 jobs were added in those sectors, DEED said. Other sectors that added jobs were leisure and hospitality (up 3,900 jobs), education and health services (up 1,100 jobs), manufacturing (up 1,100 jobs), as well as transportation, utilities and construction.
The September job report comes just weeks away from the election that has Gov. Mark Dayton fighting to keep his office. In these closing weeks, his campaign has touted the state's relatively low unemployment rate in the face of a challenge by Republican Jeff Johnson, who's argued that Minnesota's job growth trails other states.
DEED said that September's only job losses were in government (which lost more than 4,000 jobs), financial services and mining and logging.
In August, the state also added jobs. According to DEED numbers, more than 6,000 jobs were added that month, mostly in construction and professional and business sectors.
But while the overall state unemployment number is down, the numbers show there is a disparity in racial demographics. As of August, the unemployment rate for white Minnesotans was at 3.9 percent, while the rate for Hispanic Minnesotans was at 8.7 percent, and the rate for black Minnesotans was at 10.4 percent.
