(St. Paul, MN) — Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticked up to an even three-percent in July. Oriane Casale with the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) says, “The point-one-percent increase was basically due to new people joining the labor force and starting to look for work.”
It came as the national unemployment rate dropped a tenth-of-a-point to three-and-a-half percent. Minnesota lost 400 jobs from June to July, 300 of them in the private sector.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s labor force increased by more than 3,900 people in July, the fifth month in a row of growth, bumping the state’s labor force participation rate up one-tenth of a point to 68.5%, compared to 62.6% nationally.