ST. PAUL – Minnesota employers added 10,200 jobs in May, according to seasonally adjusted figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
With those gains, the state has added 29,188 jobs in the past year, a 1% growth rate. The U.S. rate of job growth during that period was 1.7%.
Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.1% in May, the lowest level since July 2000. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.8% in May.
“Minnesota bounced back with its strongest month of job gains in more than a year, following weather-related delays in new hiring in April,” said DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy. “Businesses are continuing to add employees, despite a tightening labor market.”
Professional and business services led all sectors last month with 2,700 new jobs. Other sectors adding jobs were leisure and hospitality (up 2,200), construction (up 1,600), trade, transportation and utilities (up 1,500), manufacturing (up 1,400), other services (up 900), government (up 300), information (up 100) and logging and mining (up 100). Financial activities was steady.
Education and health services (down 600) was the only sector that lost jobs in May.
Over the past year, manufacturing (up 6,063) has added the most jobs, followed by government (up 5,804), trade, transportation and utilities (up 4,986), education and health services (up 4,463), leisure and hospitality (up 2,979), construction (up 2,898), professional and business services (up 2,072), information (up 133) and other services (up 12).
Two industries lost jobs in the past 12 months: financial activities (down 188) and logging and mining (down 34).
In the Metropolitan Statistical Areas, four regions gained jobs over the past 12 months: Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA (up 1.5 percent), Duluth-Superior MSA (up 0.9%), St. Cloud MSA (up 1.6%) and Mankato MSA (up 2.%). The Rochester MSA was down 0.7%.
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 https://mn.gov/deed/ or follow DEED on Twitter.