Minn. Unemployment Rate Holds At 7.1 Percent
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Minnesota's unemployment rate held steady at 7.1 percent in November, remaining nearly 3 percentage points lower than the national rate and down slightly from the year-ago rate of 7.6 percent, the state Department of Employment and Economic Development reported Thursday.
Employment in the state declined by 5,100 jobs during the month, but that was somewhat offset by revised October figures that added 1,900 jobs to the 14,100 new jobs in last month's report.
The department reported the state has added 44,800 jobs so far this year, a growth rate of 1.7 percent. That beats the national rate of 0.6 percent.
Government gained the most jobs of all the sectors in the state in November. DEED Commissioner Dan McElroy said the addition of 3,500 government jobs could be attributed to the hiring of election judges.
Manufacturing added another 1,800 jobs. "Manufacturing, in particular, has been a bright spot, adding 12,900 jobs in the state in the past 12 months," McElroy said. Only the health care and education sector has added more jobs this year at 13,400.
A separate survey of manufacturers released Sunday found that they had a better year in 2010 than 2009. McElroy said this was not surprising because last year was "awful" for the sector.
More than half of those surveyed reported increases in orders and production and more than a third hired new workers. In 2011, the survey found both trends are expected to continue.
In the unemployment report, the sector with the biggest monthly loss was leisure and hospitality, which was down 4,000 jobs. However, DEED labor market analyst Steve Hine said the decline could be the result of new accounting rules. For the year, the sector has added 10,300 jobs.
Job losses were also found in financial activities (2,900); trade, transportation and utilities (2,100) and education and health services (down 700). Hine said the latter was driven by job cuts in public schools.
"It is not until November that we get a final picture of hiring at the public schools," Hine said.
If manufacturing has been a bright spot, construction has been the opposite. The sector lost 600 jobs from October to November and 5,300 jobs so far this year.
In the state's metropolitan areas, employment in Rochester was up 1.6 percent in the past year, in Duluth it was up 0.9 percent, in Mankato up 0.9 percent and Minneapolis-St. Paul was up 1.3 percent. Employment in St. Cloud declined 0.1 percent, or about 100 jobs.
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