The state’s unemployment rate held steady at four-percent in January. State job analyst Steve Hine says….
“We saw decent job gains in leisure and hospitality that increased by 33-hundred during the month.”
Hine says the biggest job losses were in trade, transportation and utilities…
“That was down 41-hundred. And professional and business services were down 32-hundred and government was off 27-hundred.”
Over the past year, the state has gained 35,136 jobs, an increase of 1.2 percent.
Hine says as the labor market tightens, wage growth continues. He says the average hourly rate for private sector workers increased again in January, up 29-cents over December….
Hine says wages began climbing over the second half of last year.
More on January numbers:
Manufacturing was the only industry that lost jobs in the past 12 months, down 1,811. In the Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the following regions gained jobs in the past 12 months: Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA (up 1.4 percent), Rochester MSA (up 0.8 percent), St. Cloud MSA (up 1.3 percent) and Duluth-Superior MSA (up 0.1 percent). The Mankato MSA lost jobs (down 0.3 percent). DEED also announced revised job figures from the previous two years based on updated data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those figures indicate Minnesota gained nearly 8,500 more jobs than originally reported from December 2014 to December 2015. The state, however, gained about 4,200 fewer jobs than originally reported between December 2015 and December 2016.
Those adjustments and other factors resulted in a revised unemployment rate of 4 percent in December 2016, rather than the 3.9 percent rate that was originally reported. DEED has added a section to its website that examines the unemployment rate by demographics (race, age and gender) and looks at alternative measures of unemployment. DEED is the state’s principal economic development agency, promoting business recruitment, expansion and retention, workforce development, international trade and community development. For more details about the agency and its services, visit the DEED website