Minnesota released a record-low monthly unemployment rate of 2% for May on Thursday, citing data dating back to 1976.
According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the state created a net 6,600 jobs in May, up 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the same month last year and following a revised 11,700 job increase in April. Minnesota has now added employment for eight consecutive months, according to the agency.
“Minnesota is on track to keep adding jobs, assuming companies can find employees to fill them.” DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said in a statement that “we’re still down more than 75,000 persons in our labor force since before the outbreak.” “That’s why we’ve created our ‘Summer of Jobs’ campaign to showcase the various employment possibilities available and to assist firms in locating individuals in labor pools they may have missed previously.”
According to DEED, the unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percent to 2% in May, owing solely to persons transferring from unemployment to employment. The labor force participation rate increased from 68.3 percent to 68.4 percent, indicating that more people are working and seeking for jobs.
In May, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6 percent, but the labor force participation rate increased by a tenth of a percentage point to 62.3 percent.
The private sector in the state added 7,500 jobs in May, up 0.3 percent from April and compared to a revised 11,000 in April. From April to May, the United States added 390,000 jobs, up 0.3 percent, with the private sector adding 333,000 jobs, up 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.
DEED’s Summer of Sectors program involves job shadowing some of the state’s best-paying in-demand jobs, including as manufacturing, health care, technology, and more. It will also offer best practices and possibilities for companies to identify talent in underserved populations including as immigrant communities, Minnesotans with disabilities, and those recently released from prison. This week, the campaign began in Mankato.
The job recovery hasn’t been uniform for all Minnesotans: black and Hispanic Minnesotans continue to have higher unemployment rates than white Minnesotans, according to 12-month moving averages used to smooth out discrepancies caused by small sample numbers. Both Black and Hispanic Minnesotans participate in the labor force at greater rates than white Minnesotans, with 69.9% for Black Minnesotans, 79.6% for Hispanic Minnesotans, and 68.4% for white Minnesotans.
