Minnesota Sees Largest Gain in Total Employment Since March

St. Paul – Minnesota gained 14,500 jobs, up 0.5% in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, and the private sector gained 8,700 jobs, up 0.4%, according to numbers released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). These were the largest gains since March for total employment and the largest since May for private sector employment.

Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.9% in July. This drop was due to people moving into jobs as well as a small decline in the state’s labor force participation, which also ticked down by a tenth of a point to 67.8% in July. Nationally, the unemployment rate fell a half a percentage point to 5.4% in July, with labor force participation up one-tenth to 61.7%.

Because jobs numbers have been a little bumpy across the country this last year, translating seasonally adjusted job change into a 3-month moving average helps give a clearer picture of Minnesota’s trajectory. Minnesota added 14,300 jobs, up 0.5%, in March-May; 9,100 jobs, up 0.3%, in April-June; and 9,500, up 0.3%, in May-July, continuing a growth pattern. Nationally, this compares to 0.4% growth in the first two periods and 0.5% growth during the May-July period.

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