State Unemployment Rate Falls To 3.8 Percent

Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8 percent in November as the state added 5,000 jobs, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development’s monthly report.
 
November’s rate was a decrease of 0.2 percent from the 4 percent reported in October—a month when the state lost 12,500 jobs in what DEED commissioner Shawntera Hardy called "a disappointment."

Hardy sounded a much more upbeat message this month. “Minnesota’s economy remains fundamentally strong, with steady job growth and rising wages,” she said. “Those trends are likely to continue through 2017.”
 
A majority of Minnesota’s major industry sectors added workers during the month, with construction leading the pack with 3,400 new jobs. It was followed by education and health services (up 2,500) and leisure and hospitality (up 1,800). The biggest losers in November were professional and business services (down 3,000), government (down 800) and manufacturing (down 200).
 
Though employers have continued to add jobs throughout the state, the numbers over the past year have lagged behind the United States overall. Since November 2015, Minnesota added about 32,000 jobs for an increase of 1.1 percent. The U.S. job growth rate during the same period was 1.6 percent.