St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Minnesota’s unemployment rate edged closer to the all-time record low last month. Despite a net loss of about 1400 jobs, the state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate for September was down about a tenth of a point from August at only 2.8-percent. That’s a half-point lower than the unemployment rate from September 2017, and it is only three-tenths above the historic low of 2.5-percent reached in both January and February 1999. It is also the lowest rate for the month of September since 1998 when it bottomed out at 2.7-percent.

“While job declines are disappointing, they are to some extent a consequence of earlier economic strength,” said DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy. “This summer we saw large job gains, particularly in leisure and hospitality. These industries tend to eliminate some of those jobs at the end of the busy summer travel season.”

With the loss of 1400 jobs last month and a revision to the August report that erased an additional 200 jobs, Minnesota has now gained a little over 37,300 jobs during the past 12 months. That works out to a job growth rate of 1.3-percent, which compares to the national rate of 1.9-percent.

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